


NorthStar

by holtzbabe



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, erin just wants a fresh start, holtz is an HR nightmare, there's something strange in the neighbourhood, who you gonna call? erin gilbert HR Manager
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-12
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-06-26 08:44:21
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 35,154
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15659763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holtzbabe/pseuds/holtzbabe
Summary: All Erin wanted from her new HR job at NorthStar Nuclear Innovation was a change of scenery and a boring 9-5. She had her fill of drama at her old job, and she’s over it. This is her fresh start.Enter the walking HR nightmare that is Dr. Jillian Holtzmann, hell-bent on making Erin’s job ten times as difficult as it needs to be. She’s mouthy, cocky, purposefully violates company policies, disregards health and safety regulations, plays pranks and goofs off 24/7, and is a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen with all the flirting she does. Worst of all, she seems to take pleasure in getting under Erin’s skin.But it doesn’t matter—nothing and no one is going to ruin this job for Erin. Especially not Jillian Holtzmann.





	1. NorthStar

**Author's Note:**

> As you may or may not know, the second diploma I just graduated with is in HR Management and that's the career I'm embarking on with my new job, so this fic is a liiittle self-indulgent. Only time will tell if anyone but me likes it lol

The doors to the elevator in front of Erin open with a ding, and she shuffles inside with the rest of the crowd, ready to be carried to her new life.

She double checks the floor number on her phone even though she has it memorized, and presses the 13 button before tucking herself in the back corner behind a tall man who smells like tropical sunscreen. It’s November.

As the doors close, a hand shoots between them and in slides a small blonde woman who looks like she doesn’t belong anywhere near an office building. Probably a painter or part of the maintenance crew, judging by her splattered overalls. She catches Erin staring at her and gives her a wink before turning around to face the doors. Erin feels her face heat up.

At her floor, Erin steps around sunscreen man to leave. She’s surprised to see the blonde woman getting off as well.

The small hallway they step out into contains a door and a security desk manned by a scrawny, tired-looking man with thick glasses who seems to be no older than 20.

“Morning, Brawny,” the blonde woman says cheerfully. She doesn’t seem to notice that Erin is behind her.

The guy doesn’t look up from the book he’s reading.

The woman taps her security pass beside the frosted glass door that bares the NorthStar logo. There’s a beep and a click and she pulls the door open and slips inside.

Erin reaches the security desk and clears her throat.

The guy doesn’t react.

“Um. Hi. My name is Erin Gilbert…I’m starting today. I should be on a list to—”

The guy reaches up and slams a security pass on the desk without looking up.

“Oh. Thank you. Do I need to sign something that—”

The guy sighs loudly and puts his book down, then rummages in a drawer in his desk until he produces a slip of paper. He shoves it towards her.

“Is there a pen?” she asks meekly, glancing around.

No answer.

“You know, that’s fine, I have one.” She swings her briefcase up and onto the counter and opens it, digging until she finds one of the pens inside. She clicks it and carefully fills in her personal information on the form. She’s not certain that it’s the right form, but she signs it anyway.

“Is that your nickname?” she jokes as she dates the form. “Brawny?”

The guy stares at her with dead eyes. “That’s my name.”

She opens and closes her mouth. “Oh,” she says. “I’m sorry.”

He rolls his eyes and goes back to his book.

She finishes the form and returns the pen to her briefcase, sealing it again and pulling it off the desk. She pushes the paper towards Brawny and picks up the security pass.

“Thank you for your help,” she says, and then she lets herself into the office.

This is her first time here—her interview was done over the phone. Her first impression is that it’s big. Modern. The walls are painted the same burnt orange of the logo, which sort of gives the impression that the whole office is on fire.

There are no cubicles, just scattered desk clumps and the occasional enclosed office space with glass walls. They remined Erin of fishbowls. What’s the point?

There’s a desk just inside the door that’s marked reception but there’s nobody seated there. Nobody seems to have noticed her arrival. She bites her lip and approaches the closest desk clump. There’s a man with thinning black hair with his back to her, hunched over his desk.

“Excuse me,” she starts.

He jumps and whirls around. His face is so pale she can see veins beneath his skin in spots.

“Sorry,” she says quickly. “I didn’t mean to startle you. I’m Erin Gilbert. I’m new—starting today. I’m looking for Patty?”

He points a shaking finger across the room to a glass-walled office in the centre with a woman working inside.

“Thank you,” she says with what she hopes is a warm smile.

Despite the transparent walls, Patty doesn’t seem to notice Erin approaching. When she gets just outside the open door, she waits a few seconds and then clears her throat.

“Oh! Hey! Erin?” Patty gets up from her desk.

“That’s me,” Erin says.

Patty greets her at the door and shakes her hand firmly, excitedly. “Patty Tolan, Office Manager. Come in! Sit down wherever.”

Erin hesitantly sits down on the edge of a low grey backless couch that’s against one of the walls, careful not to lean back lest she smudge the glass.

Patty sits back at her desk and spreads her arms. “So, welcome to NorthStar Nuclear Innovation. Sorry nobody was around to greet you. We lost our receptionist a few weeks back. That’ll be your first job, actually. We’ve been without HR for a while now so we have a lot of vacancies that I haven’t had time to fill.”

Erin sits up straighter. “I’m happy to be of service, then.”

“Great,” Patty says, smiling brightly. “How ’bout I take you on a tour? Did you meet anyone yet?”

“Um, just, uh…the security guard?”

“Ah, Brawny. Good kid. Terrible at his job. Good kid. The position has a lot of turnover, so it’s hard to keep anyone for long. He’ll run screaming like the rest of them before long.”

Erin laughs nervously.

“So, tour?” Patty asks cheerfully.

“Definitely,” Erin says.

They exit Patty’s fishbowl office and wander around the open space. Patty introduces her to people as they go, points out the lunch room, the copier room, the bathrooms, finally finishing in the back corner where there’s a set of steel doors with a PIN pad to the left of them and various warning signs plastered over them.

“This is the nuclear research lab,” Patty says. “Restricted access. I’ll take you in to show you around and introduce you to everyone, but you won’t be comin’ back here much.”

She punches a long string of numbers into the PIN pad, then swipes a card that’s hanging from a lanyard around her neck. There’s a click as the doors unlock, and she pulls them open and ushers them inside.

There’s a second set of doors behind the first. Before they go in, they both don lab coats hanging from a series of hooks on the walls. Patty repeats the process with another PIN pad and swipe access, then leads them into the lab.

There’s a lot to look at—machinery everywhere and people mulling around, hard at work. Nobody pays them much attention. To the right of the door, there’s a small office with a woman inside, typing at a computer. She’s wearing a bolo tie under her lab coat.

Patty knocks on the doorframe. “Dr. Gorin?”

The woman looks up with disinterest, taking Erin in over the rims of her glasses.

“This is Erin Gilbert. She’s our new HR Manager. Erin, Dr. Gorin is our senior engineer—she manages the lab.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Erin says, stepping into the office and extending her hand.

“She doesn’t shake,” Patty says.

Dr. Gorin turns back to her work. “I do my own hiring and discipline.”

“I’ll try not to step on your toes, then,” Erin says as she backs up towards the door nervously. There’s an unsettling coldness to the woman.

“C’mon,” Patty says. “There’s some more people to meet.”

Back in the main part of the lab, Patty introduces her to a few more people, none of whom seem particularly interested to meet her.

Then, in the very back, there’s a familiar face.

It’s the blonde woman—the one from the elevator. She’s sitting at one of the work stations, one boot on the table in front of her, watching them. When she sees that Erin has noticed her, she abruptly turns on the blowtorch in her hand, her lips curling into a self-satisfied smirk.

“Who’s that?” Erin says before she can stop herself.

Patty follows her gaze. “That’s Dr. Holtzmann. She’s the head experimental nuclear engineer here.”

The woman winks again like she did earlier, this time as if she’s daring Erin to come closer. Erin finds her feet moving on their own will. Patty follows her.

“Come here often?” Dr. Holtzmann says cockily once she gets close enough.

“This is Erin Gilbert,” Patty says. “She’s new here—HR. She’s here to keep your ass in line.”

“Excellent,” Dr. Holtzmann says, a grin spreading on her face. She turns off the blowtorch and sets it aside, then stands, pulling off her protective gloves to reveal a second set of fingerless gloves. She extends her hand to shake Erin’s.

“It’s nice to meet you, Dr. Holtzmann,” Erin says politely.

“Just Holtzmann.”

“You’re not a doctor?”

“Oh, I am.” Her grin widens. “Just hate the formality. I like Holtzmann. I let pretty girls call me Holtz, though.”

“Noted.”

Holtzmann looks her up and down. “That includes you.”

“Ey, stop flirting,” Patty says, snapping her fingers like Holtzmann is a misbehaving cat. “Leave her alone. We want this one to stick around.”

Erin blushes. “See you around, Holtzmann,” she says, turning quickly so she won’t see her red cheeks.

Then she immediately freezes.

“Oh, perfect, this is who I was gonna introduce you to next,” Patty says behind her, sounding like she’s very far away, suddenly. “This is another one of our physicists: Dr. Yates.”

“Abby,” Erin manages to gasp out. Her ears are ringing.

The woman who she hasn’t seen for the better part of two decades crosses her arms. “Erin.”

Shit.

 


	2. Ghosts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back already! Decided I'm just going to post this one as I write it and hope for the best. Btw, disclaimer that this is unbetaed, so...sorry lol. Anyway, let's get into the meat of it!

“You two know each other?” Patty says.

“No,” Abby says, brushing past her.

Erin can’t say anything. She frozen in place.

“Don’t tell me this is _the_ Erin,” Holtzmann says loudly. “The one who stabbed you in the back twenty years ago?”

“Alright, I don’t know what’s goin’ on. Do y’all know each other or not?”

“We knew each other a long time ago,” Erin whispers.

“Is this gonna be a problem?”

Erin unfreezes and whirls around quickly. “No. Definitely not. I’m a professional—I would never let my personal life interfere with work.”

 _Liar,_ the voice in her head hisses.

Abby snorts.

“Good,” Patty says. “C’mon, Erin, I’ll show you to your office, and then I gotta get back to work.”

Erin swallows and follows her, feeling two pairs of eyes boring into her back as she walks away.

“Goodbye, _Eriiiin_ ,” Holtzmann singsongs.

 

“You good?” Patty asks once they’ve cleared both sets of doors and are back in the orange-walled cavernous office. It feels like a different world.

“Yes, definitely,” Erin says. “I just didn’t expect to see someone I know here. It’s fine—I’ll be fine.”

“Good,” Patty repeats. “And hey, word of advice—don’t let anyone get under your skin here. They’ll try to drive you out, but you seem like the type of person who can take it. Like Holtzmann—she loves gettin’ a rise outta people. You just gotta ignore her.”

Erin can’t imagine ignoring Holtzmann, but she nods anyway. “I’ve dealt with difficult employees before. I can handle it.”

They stop in front of an empty glass office-box.

“This is you,” Patty says. “Sorry, I know they ain’t the most private—but they’re what we got. This is where our last HR Manager sat. All the employee records are there.” She points to a low black filing cabinet against one of the glass walls. “I’ll get you keys and send over someone from IT to set you up on your computer. Once you’re set up, I’ll show you were you can find everything you need to get started posting the receptionist job. That’s a priority, for sure. In the meantime, get settled and holler if you need anything, alright?”

“Sounds good,” Erin says. “Thanks, Patty.”

Patty waves and leaves her to return to her own office. Erin takes a hesitant seat at her desk and stows her briefcase below it. She feels like she’s on display in the glass-walled office, but nobody seems to be paying her any attention.

She jiggles the mouse to wake up the computer. It hums to life, the monitor fading in slowly to reveal a green screen with a single word in black lettering with a cursor flashing behind it.

RUN

She frowns. “What the—”

The screen goes black with a little pfft. She looks down underneath the desk at the computer to see that it has powered off. She presses the power button and leans back in her chair as it turns back on.

This time, she’s greeted immediately with the cheerful Windows 10 login screen. She has no idea what the other screen was—but she’s not much of a computer person, so that’s not saying much.

On cue, someone clears their throat. She turns to see a pimply, teenage-looking girl, who pops her bubble gum and tilts her head.

“Hi, I’m Sabrina? I’m here to get you connected?”

“You’re from IT?”

“Yeah?” The girl comes inside and hands her a Post-It. “That’s your login information?”

Erin takes the sticky note and types in her username, _egilbert,_ and the string of letters and numbers assigned as her password. It works and lets her in.

“Your email address should be that username at nsni dot com and you can log in with the same password through Outlook? Your U drive on the computer is your personal drive, and you’ve also been given access to the shared H drive with all the HR files? There’s also an internal instant messenger program that you can use to communicate with people within the office? Just log in with the same credentials as before?”

Erin nods at her screen. “Sounds simple enough.”

“Any questions?”

“I had a weird screen pop up when I first turned on the monitor,” Erin says, turning to her. “It just said ‘run.’ Is that normal.”

Sabrina shrugs. “I’ve never seen that before? Coulda been, like, an error message?”

“I guess so,” Erin says. “Wait, are you asking me, or telling me?”

Sabrina stares at her.

“Never mind,” Erin says. “Thank you.”

The girl leaves without saying goodbye. Erin shakes her head and pulls up Outlook to sign into her email, then signs in to the instant messenger, which auto-populates with everyone in the office. She scrolls through the contact list, landing first on _JILLIAN HOLTZMANN_ —noting her first name for future reference—and then, down at the bottom, _ABBY YATES_. She stares at the name for a few seconds, then scrolls back up to the top.

The computer pings and a chat window opens up with a message, but there’s no name.

_01110010 01110101 01101110: Get out while you still can, Erin Gilbert._

She squints at the screen.

_Erin Gilbert: Who is this?_

There’s an error noise. The message won’t send. She tries a few more times, then eventually gives up and closes the window. Maybe it’s someone playing a prank.

Another window opens up with a ping.

_Patty Tolan: Hey! I guess you have access now? H drive should have the most recent job description/posting for the receptionist position. Will need to be updated. Take a look_

_Erin Gilbert: Will do. Thank you._

She cracks her knuckles and clicks into the drive, ready to get to work.

 

By lunchtime all she’s really accomplished is discovering that the job description and posting are both extremely out of date. The posting, for example, lists _experience with E-Mail_ and _experience working with dot matrix printers_ as required skills. ‘Will need to be updated’ is an understatement.

She updates it as best as she can, working right through lunch—she eats at her desk—and then gets up to go to the bathroom.

The whole bathroom is dark—black tile on the walls and floor, black stalls, dim lighting. When she exits her stall and walks up to the row of sinks to wash her hands, there’s a woman standing there. It’s weird—Erin didn’t hear her come in, and all the stalls were empty when she arrived.

The woman applies blood red lipstick in the mirror at the sink next to Erin’s. She’s wearing a grey pantsuit, her dark hair pulled back. She’s very composed.

“Hi,” Erin says as she washes her hands. “I’m Erin—I’m new here. I don’t think we met earlier?”

“Jennifer Lynch, PR,” the woman says. “You’re lucky.”

“Sorry?”

“NorthStar is a highly sought-after employer,” Jennifer says. “People are dying to work here.”

“Really?” Erin shakes her hands and wanders to turn on the high-powered hand dryer. She shouts over the noise of it, “Or are you just saying that because you’re in PR?”

No response.

Erin looks. Jennifer is gone.

“Okay?” Erin says to herself.

 

Later that afternoon, Erin is in the copier room, trying her hardest to get the copier to work and stop jamming. This right here is what she’s familiar with. This feels like any old office. It’s easy to forget about the weird vibe she’s been getting all day.

“You just gotta give it a good kick.”

Erin jumps and turns her head to see Holtzmann leaning casually in the doorframe of the copier room.

“What?”

“The copier. It’s jammed, right?” Holtzmann saunters over and thuds her boot into the base of the machine. There’s an awful grinding sound, but then, miraculously, it starts to work. “Voila.”

“Thanks,” Erin mutters. “I’ll be another minute.”

“Take your time,” Holtzmann says.

Silence except for the noises of the copier.

Holtzmann leans on the machine. “So, how’d you end up here? At NorthStar?”

Erin bites her lip. “How does anyone end up at any job? I saw an opening, applied, was interviewed, and was hired.”

“Where’d you work before this?”

“In the HR department at Columbia University,” Erin says. “I was there for twelve years.”

Holtzmann whistles. “Why’d you leave?”

“Decided I needed a change of pace,” Erin says in a clipped voice, “so I quit.”

Holtzmann hums.

Erin looks over at her. “What about you? What brought you here?”

Holtzmann runs her tongue along her teeth and shrugs. “Needed a job. Took the first thing that came along. Been here for three years, now.”

“Do you like it here?”

“It pays the bills.”

Erin finishes with the copier, gathers her papers, and steps back. “It’s all yours.”

“Oh, I wasn’t waiting.”

“Then—” Erin shakes her head, deciding not to question it. She steps out of the room, and Holtzmann follows her.

She tails her all the way to the office space right beside Erin’s, then stops. “This is me.”

Erin pauses. “I thought you worked in the lab.”

“I do. And I have an office out here.”

Erin frowns. “Does anyone else have an office out here?”

“You have an office out here.”

“Does anyone else from the _lab_ have an office out here?”

“Nah.” Holtzmann grins. “I’m special.”

“I have to get back to work,” Erin says, and holds up her papers as proof.

Holtzmann waves and ducks inside her supposed office. Erin returns to her own office and takes a seat, setting the papers beside her computer. After a few minutes, she feels like she’s being watched and glances up to see Holtzmann sprawled in her swivel chair, unabashedly staring at her. She salutes when she sees her.

Erin blushes and ducks her head again.

 

At five, Erin packs up her briefcase and grabs her jacket. As she passes Holtzmann’s office, she sees that Abby is inside. She tracks Erin with a glare that could melt the siding off a house. Erin walks quickly past the office.

She runs into Patty over by the reception desk.

“Erin! How’d your first day go?”

“Good,” Erin says. “I’m nearly done with a draft of the receptionist posting. I should have it ready for your approval tomorrow.”

“That’s great,” Patty says. “You’re gonna fit in well here. We’re lucky to have you, Erin.”

“I’m just happy you took a chance on me,” Erin says. “I hope I can prove my worth.”

Patty smiles and claps her on the shoulder. “See you tomorrow.”

Brawny is asleep on his desk outside the door. Erin pushes the elevator button and waits.

She’s a little unsure about some of the things that happened today, but at the end of the day, anything is better than where she’s coming from. She should be thankful she found a job at all. She needs to remember that.

 

Three months earlier

_Erin knocks on the office door of the Chief Human Resources Officer._

_“Hey, honey, you wanted to see m—” She breaks off when she steps inside and realizes that there are other figures inside._

_Phil stands behind his desk with a grim expression. “Take a seat, Erin. You remember Dean Filmore from the Department of Physics?”_

_Erin sits next to the man she remembers vividly. He’s had it out for her for years because she’s always getting on his case about the rampant sexual harassment cases in his department, as well as his clear sexist hiring practices. He rarely hires women, and when he does, they don’t last long._

_“And you know John.”_

_Erin glances nervously at the University President, then back at Phil. “Am I in trouble? Does this have something to do with our relationship? We did our due diligence. We followed all the rules, filled out all the paperwork…”_

_“It has been brought to our attention,” Phil says, “that you have a somewhat…unfavourable past.”_

_“I don’t know what you mean,” Erin says._

_“Did you or did you not spend six months in a mental asylum for—” Phil steels himself like he’s about to say something truly vulgar— “seeing_ ghosts?”

_Erin’s heart climbs into her throat. “Excuse me? That’s not—how did you—my personal medical history is none of your business, or anyone’s—”_

_“I was talking to a colleague at the University of Michigan,” Dean Filmore says. “You attended that institution, did you not?”_

_Erin can feel the blood drain from her face. “I did part of my undergrad there.”_

_“You studied Physics, correct?” Dean Filmore doesn’t wait for her to answer. “My colleague in the Department of Physics mentioned a student he had many years ago, one Erin Gilbert who had driven herself mad trying to prove the existence of ghosts. She went so crazy she had to be removed from the school and admitted to a mental hospital.” He pauses, a smile curling on his lips. “Sound familiar?”_

_Erin is shaking. “That’s not what happened.”_

_“I have it on good authority that it is.”_

_“Erin,” John says carefully. “Surely you understand that an institution such as Columbia cannot have this getting out. It is simply not what we stand for.”_

_“What are you saying?” Erin looks back and forth between him and Phil. “Are you firing me?”_

_Phil presses his lips together._

_She stands abruptly. “You can’t fire me over this. That’s a major human rights violation. You can’t discriminate against me based on my medical history. I won’t let you do this.”_

_“We are prepared to offer you a generous severance package to keep this as…quiet as possible,” Phil says, pushing an envelope across the desk to her._

_Erin doesn’t touch it. “What’s to stop me from suing?”_

_Phil glances at John. “I think you’ll find,” he says calmly, “that if you do, you will never find another job again in your life. If you want to blow up your reputation over this, be our guest.” He smiles. “You won’t do that, though, darling.”_

_“Fuck you, Phil,” Erin says shakily. She snatches the envelope. “Whatever you’re offering me, I want double.”_

_“No,” Phil says._

_He motions to someone behind her, and two security officers enter and each take one of her arms. She struggles in their grasp._

_“You can’t do this,” she says. “You can’t do this.”_

_“Goodbye, Erin,” he says as she’s dragged from the room._

As she steps into the elevator, she decides that all in all, it was not a terrible first day. It could have been far worse. Patty seems nice, and there’s definitely lots of work to be done.

And all the rest—Abby, the weird stuff with her computer, Holtzmann—it’ll all work out, somehow.

It has to.

 


	3. Security

On her second day, Erin ends up in the elevator with Holtzmann again.

“Mornin’ sunshine,” she says. “You’re wearing a lot of tweed today.”

Erin looks down at her outfit. “So?” She always got lectured at Columbia about her clothes.

“I like it,” Holtzmann says.

Erin blushes. It’s becoming a habit.

They exit onto the 13th floor together. Brawny doesn’t look up as Holtzmann waves her security pass at the sensor and pulls open the door.

“You’ll need to do yours too,” Holtzmann says. “The system tracks who’s inside the office.”

Erin waves her own pass at the sensor and follows her inside. They part ways; Holtzmann makes a break for the lab, and Erin heads for her office.

She spends all morning working on the posting for the receptionist position and finishes a draft, which she takes to Patty’s office. When she gets there, Patty is on the phone. She holds up a finger to Erin.

“I hear what you’re sayin’ but—no, this ain’t my fault, so don’t go blaming me. I’ll deal with it, okay? Alright, man. Whatever you say. Bye.” She hangs up the phone and her frown turns to a smile. “Hey! Come on in. Sorry about that.”

“No worries,” Erin says. She holds up the bundle of paper. “I brought the job posting I wrote…thought maybe you could look it over and approve it if you’ve got a minute?”

Patty takes the posting and flips through it. “Looks good to me. I’m sure you’d know better than me.” She looks up. “Did you have a chance to look through any of our policies yet?”

Erin shakes her head.

“Give the hiring policy a look. We got rules about the hiring process. Postings get emailed out internally to everyone at the same time as they’re posted externally. All internal applicants gotta be given an interview.”

“I’ll read through it before I post anything,” Erin says. “Are the policies saved in the H drive?”

“Yeah. Other than that, you’re good to move forward with posting the job. The policy should walk you through it. Let me know when you’re done, alright?”

“Will do,” Erin says. “Thank you.”

Before Erin has fully exited the office, Patty has already lifted her phone again and is dialing.

“Close the door on your way out, Erin, woulda?” she says. “Thanks.”

Erin does as she’s told.

 

Erin reads the hiring policy, which mostly makes sense—although there are some questionable parts to it. She doesn’t entirely agree with giving every internal applicant an interview, not if they’re not qualified, but she’ll abide by it. Maybe a policy review is in her future—she wonders when they were last updated. If they’re anything like the job descriptions, they’ll need some work.

She formats an email as directed and attaches the job posting to it, then sends it out to everyone on her contact list. Then she posts the position on a few online sites—not many, but enough that it’ll have a far-enough reach. She doesn’t anticipate having any trouble filling the position. It’s not exactly a specialized role. People with receptionist experience grow on trees.

She sends an IM to Patty to let her know that the posting is live but doesn’t receive a response. She turns her attention to the rest of the policy folder and starts to familiarize herself with the rest of them. Some of them are definitely out of date, and others are missing entirely. There’s no harassment policy. She’ll have to write one soon.

It’s about half an hour later when a figure appears at the open door to her office. Erin looks up.

“Hello, Holtzmann,” she says.

“I’d like to be considered.”

Erin blinks. “For the receptionist position?”

“Yeah.” Holtzmann grins.

“Um.” Erin regards her warily. “Okay? Do you have a résumé?”

Holtzmann thrusts a piece of paper at her. Erin wheels closer in her chair and takes it.

She stares at it for a few seconds, then looks up. “This just says _I’m Dr. Jillian Holtzmann_.”

“I can assure you, everything on there is factual.”

“This isn’t a résumé.”

“Sure it is. What more do you need to know?”

“Uh…your education, your work experience, your competencies, your references…”

“Let’s save some mystery for the interview,” Holtzmann says. “Shoot me a message with my date and time, and I will see _you_ then.”

She strides off, whistling as she goes.

“Great,” Erin mutters. She picks up the file folder she’s started for applications and slides the single sheet of paper inside.

This should be good.

 

As Erin is eating her lunch at her desk, a figure appears in her office doorway. She looks up to see that it’s Patty and feels strangely disappointed. She was almost hoping it was Holtzmann again.

Patty looks stressed. Erin wonders if it has anything to do with whoever she was on the phone with earlier.

“Here,” she says, and tosses a small object at Erin.

Erin snags it out of the air and opens her palm to reveal a single key.

“That’ll open the filing cabinets.” Patty nods her head at them. “That reminds me, you signed the confidentiality agreement, right?”

“Yes, I sent it back with my signed letter of employment.” Erin reaches for her mouse. “Do you want me to confirm that?”

“Nah, it’s fine. I’m sure you did.” Patty pauses as she’s leaving the office. “Any applicants yet for the receptionist position?”

Erin’s eye twitches. “Just one. Holtzmann applied.”

Patty snorts. “Figures. Well, keep me updated. When you start to put together an interview schedule, just look at my Outlook calendar and make sure I’m available. The two of us will do them together.”

“Sounds good.”

“See you later, Erin.” Patty waves as she leaves.

Erin goes back to eating her sad lunch.

 

After lunch, she unlocks the filing cabinet with all the personnel files and pulls it open.

“Let’s see what we’ve got here,” she says to herself as she thumbs through them. She finds _Holtzmann, Jillian_ with ease and pulls it out.

The folder is practically empty. There’s no evidence of past discipline, no job application or interview notes from when she was hired, no performance reviews, not even a résumé. All that’s in there is her signed letter of offer.  

The letter contains Holtzmann’s salary, which makes Erin’s eyes bug out a little. She knows engineers are paid high, but the number listed is more than triple what Erin is making—and she’s making a good salary here. Not to mention that Holtzmann has been here three years, which means she’s probably received a few raises.

If that’s what she’s making, Erin can only imagine what someone higher up like Dr. Gorin is making. Or the CEO. She might have to do some digging through payroll records, just out of curiosity.

Erin had hoped to find out more information about the engineer other than just her salary, but she resigns to the lack of information and files the folder back in its spot. She knows that she should really update the file with Holtzmann’s résumé (or whatever it is you want to call the sheet of paper she submitted earlier), but it hardly seems worth it.

She hesitates, then pulls out Abby’s file next.

This one is thicker, filled with more information. There are a few official written warnings—apparently she has a habit of mouthing off to her supervisors. That doesn’t surprise Erin at all. There’s documentation of her taking a few paid leaves, but it doesn’t specify what kind. There’s no medical documentation, so they probably weren’t medical leaves, but beyond that, Erin can’t deduce anything.

Her résumé is sheathed at the back along with her job application (which makes the lack of such documents in Holtzmann’s file even more peculiar). Erin pulls out the résumé and traces her fingers over the words that she knew would be there.

_Bachelor of Science in Physics, University of Michigan, 1997_

She stayed for her master’s too, apparently. Then did her PhD at Yale.

Erin always knew she’d go on to do great things. She just wishes she had been around to watch it happen.

 

On Erin’s third day of work, Holtzmann is out of breath when she slips into the elevator, like she sprinted just so she’d be in the same elevator as Erin.

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this,” she says with a lopsided grin.

Erin adjusts her blazer and doesn’t say anything.

When they step out onto the 13th floor, Erin is surprised to see two burley men in suits standing on either side of the doorway. Brawny is nowhere to be seen.

“Mornin’ fellas,” Holtzmann says.

“We need to search your bags, ladies,” the taller man says. He’s got an ID badge clipped to his chest that says Rorke. No first name.

“Why?” Erin frowns.

“No questions.” The other man, whose ID says Hawkins, reaches for Erin’s briefcase.

Rorke rifles through the silver duffle bag that Holtzmann has slung over her shoulder. He pulls out a can of Pringles and looks at her.

“Lunch,” she says cheerfully. She catches Erin staring and winks. “You try saying no to these salty parabolas.”

Hawkins hands Erin’s briefcase back. “You’re clear.”

Rorke pulls some sort of device out of Holtzmann’s duffle bag. It has two curved prongs coming out of the top of a box that has a bunch of buttons and dials.

“What is this?” he says.

Holtzmann shifts. “I wouldn’t touch th—”

Rorke presses a button and the prongs start to spin.

“Looks like one of those things that makes cotton candy,” Erin says. “Or one of those spinny light-up toys you can get at Disneyland.”

Holtzmann shoots her a look.

“What is it?” Rorke repeats. “Where did you get this?”

“It’s mine. I made it,” Holtzmann says.

“Why did you remove it from the premises?”

“I didn’t make it here. I have a workshop at home.”

Hawkins steps in. “Why are you bringing it onto the premises?”

Holtzmann shrugs. “I forgot it was in my bag. Sue me.”

They exchange a glance.

“We’ll be taking this,” Rorke says.

“What? You can’t do that—that’s my personal property,” Holtzmann protests.

“I think you’ll find that we can,” Hawkins says.

The two of them step aside to let Erin and Holtzmann flash their passes at the sensor and enter the office.

“What was that all about?” Erin says the second the door closes behind them.

Holtzmann is still pouting about her confiscated device, whatever it was. She crosses her arms. “There’s a rumour that there was a security breach the other night,” she says in a low voice.

“What kind of breach?”

Holtzmann shrugs. “They think someone broke in.”

“Aren’t there security cameras?”

“They don’t show anyone entering or leaving,” Holtzmann says, “but some stuff is missing.”

“Like what?”

Holtzmann shrugs again with a half-smile. “I gotta get to work, Erin.”

“Wait—” Erin grabs her arm as she goes to walk away. “What about Brawny? Do you think he was fired?”

Holtzmann looks over her shoulder like someone might be listening, then back at Erin. “You’d know more than me,” she says as she begins to walk backwards, both eyebrows raised. “You’re the one with all the records.”

She winks, then spins around and walks off, leaving Erin to process that.

 

After Erin has settled at her desk, checked her email for new applications for the receptionist position (there are none, strangely), and ensured that nobody is paying attention to her, she rolls over to the filing cabinet again.

She finds the file for Brawny Careless—how that poor boy has made it through life, she doesn’t know—and opens it up.

She finds nothing in there about a termination of his employment, which is promising. She finds his job application and it’s only dated about a month prior.

Patty’s words run through her head.

_He’ll run screaming like the rest of them before long._

Erin frowns and starts digging through the rest of the files.

 

Erin sees Holtzmann exit the lab and she immediately leaps up from her desk and runs to the door, waving madly.

Holtzmann sees her and quirks an eyebrow as she comes closer.

“Afternoon, Erin.”

“Come into my office. Now. I need to show you something.”

“Why, I can’t say I didn’t know this day would come,” Holtzmann says with a wry smirk. “The bathroom might be a little more private, though. Your office does have glass walls.” She looks Erin up and down with a shit-eating grin. “Unless you’re into that?”

“Holtzmann,” Erin snaps. “That’s extremely inappropriate. Don’t make me write you up for sexual harassment.”

Holtzmann’s eyes sparkle. “Do it.”

“I take sexual harassment very seriously. It’s not a joke."

“And I agree,” Holtzmann says with a straight face. “This is flirting, though.”

“If it’s unwanted, it’s harassment,” Erin says, trying to fight a blush.

“Unwanted, huh? In that case, I’ll stop.” Holtzmann’s mouth twists. “So whaddya wanna show me?”

 

Erin stands in front of the papers spread out on her desk. Holtzmann comes up beside her and unhooks her yellow glasses to let them hang off one ear.

“Patty told me on my first day that the security position has high turnover,” Erin says, “but this is insane. This company is only four years old. Since it opened, there’s been 49 incumbents of that position. _49_ people in four years. That’s a new hire every _month._ ” She shakes her head and points. “The weirdest part is that none of their files have any record of termination of their employment. Even if they all quit, there should be documentation. I have no idea what happened to them. It’s like they never officially left.”

“Spooky,” Holtzmann says.

“It gets weirder—there’s all these employees across the organization who are off on leave right now. There’s no explanation for why—they’re just gone. A _lot_ of people. I’ve never seen so many employees off on leave at the same time.”

“Should you be telling me this?” Holtzmann folds her arms. “It’s not really my business why people are off work.”

“Shoot, you’re right.” Erin looks over the documents. “These records are technically confidential. I shouldn’t be talking to you about any of this. It’s just so _strange,_ and you seem like you know about what’s going on here…”

Holtzmann moves to sit on the edge of the spare table on the other side of the office. “Nobody knows everything that’s going on here. I just hear some things.”

Erin sits in her desk chair and swivels back and forth as she considers that.

“Holtzmann…what do you do here?” she asks finally.

“Build stuff, mostly.”

Erin moves closer after glancing to make sure nobody’s watching them through the glass walls. “But what are you guys working on back there in the lab?”

Holtzmann raises an eyebrow. “A lot of it is top-secret. You probably wouldn’t understand it, anyway. It’s complex.”

Erin swallows. “I used to study physics. Particle physics, actually. Try me.”

Holtzmann regards her.

“You can trust me,” Erin prompts.

Holtzmann shifts her jaw back and forth. “We’re mostly developing weaponry.”

Erin ignores the fact that that’s not complex at all, and frowns. “For the military?”

“Nope,” Holtzmann says, popping the P. “Company is entirely privatized. We don’t have a single government contract.”

“Then…what are we developing nuclear weapons for?”

“Ain’t that the real question,” Holtzmann says.

“You don’t know?”

“Nah. We all just come in and work on what we’re told to work on.” She shrugs one shoulder. “We’re all working on our own stuff back there, too.”

“Your own stuff?” Erin repeats. “Like, projects that the company doesn’t know about? Is that what that thing in your bag was this morning?”

Holtzmann grimaces like she’d forgotten all about that until now. “Guess you could say that.”

“Huh,” Erin says thoughtfully, brow furrowed.

Holtzmann watches her intently across the office for a few minutes while Erin thinks, then clears her throat. “You went to school with Abby,” she says finally.

Erin bites her lip and stares at the floor. “Yeah,” she says quietly.

“What happened?”

“I’m sure you’ve heard the story,” Erin says bitterly.

“I’ve heard half of it,” Holtzmann says. “I want to hear the rest.”

When Erin looks up, she can see genuine interest in Holtzmann’s eyes. She licks her lips and looks back at the floor.

“She transferred to my high school junior year and we quickly became best friends,” Erin says. “We went off to the University of Michigan together and both studied physics, and it was…really great. But then—in our third year, I had to…leave school for a bit. For personal reasons. I never told her what was going on because I was too ashamed. I ignored all her calls. She must have thought I—”

She breaks off and hangs her head.

“I transferred to Michigan State because I couldn’t go back and face her. Switched majors because I couldn’t even think about physics without being reminded of…everything. My academic advisor told me there were jobs in human resources, so I majored in HR management. It seemed about as far from physics as I could get.”

“Do you ever regret it?”

Erin looks up. “Abandoning Abby, or abandoning physics?”

“Both.”

“Yes,” Erin whispers. She watches an employee cross the office towards the copier room. “I actually went on to get my MBA, which is okay, but—” She shakes her head— “ever since I was a kid, I dreamed of getting my PhD in physics. That’s what I wanted to _do._ When I was at U of M, I loved it. _So_ much.”

“There’s still time,” Holtzmann says. “You could go back to school.”

Erin laughs quietly. “This is the career I chose. I’ve made my peace with it. Sometimes I wonder, you know, _what if?_ But I’m 41. The train has long since left the station.”

“It’s never too late,” Holtzmann says firmly.

Erin nods sullenly.

“I should let you get back to work,” she says. “Thanks for the help, Holtzmann.”

Holtzmann hops off the table and salutes. “The pleasure was all mine.” She pauses by the door. “Still not there with _Holtz_ , yet, huh? Is it a professionalism thing or a self-confidence thing? Because trust me, you’re pretty enough to call me Holtz.” She holds a finger up to her lips. “Please don’t write me up for sexual harassment.”

Erin smiles and shakes her head.

Holtzmann hangs off the doorframe. “You know, my friends also call me Holtz.”

Erin turns back to her computer screen and jiggles the mouse to wake it up. “Goodbye, Holtz,” she says after a pause.

She glances over in time to see Holtz’s grin.

“Catch ya later, Erin.”

Then she slips from the doorframe and heads back towards the lab, shoving her hands in her pockets as she goes. Erin watches her for a few seconds, then directs her attention to the papers all over her desk, unable to keep from smiling.

Maybe Holtz is right. Maybe it’s not too late.

 


	4. Reception

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back! Since posting the last chapter I moved and closed on the purchase of my new condo (!!) and the last few weeks of my very own HR job have been absolute madness as well. I'm not gonna complain though--only good things are happening in my life right now :') Just means I haven't had much in the way of free time for several weeks now. Anyway, hope you enjoy this chapter! Unbetaed like the rest and just finished about 10 mins ago, so I apologize for any mistakes!

Erin’s fourth day is mostly uneventful. Hawkins and Rorke are still stationed outside the front door and they search Erin and Holtz’s bags again. They check them when she leaves, too.

On Friday, Erin is disappointed when Holtz isn’t in the elevator at the same time as her. In fact, Erin doesn’t see her all day, and she’s listed as _offline_ on the instant messenger. Maybe she’s taking a long weekend.

In the afternoon, Patty comes to her office.

“I noticed you haven’t scheduled any interviews yet,” she says. “I don’t wanna push, but we really need that job filled. I’d like to hire somebody next week.”

Erin hesitates. “I’m sorry. It’s just…there’s only been one applicant. Two if you include Holtz.”

Patty waves her hand. “Bring ’em in, then. Might only take one to find the right person.”

Erin nods.

“Other than that, is everything going okay? You’re settlin’ in?”

“Everything’s great,” Erin says. “I was actually, um, looking at maybe updating some of the personnel files. Just to make sure they’re all up to date? I noticed when I was looking through them that none of the previous security guards have any record of termination. Did they all quit? I’d like to add notes to their files that indicate how and when they left…”

Patty looks over her shoulder, then steps inside the office and shuts the door behind her.

“They didn’t quit,” she says under her breath. “They all stopped coming in. Out of the blue, no notice, never heard from them again.”

Erin frowns. “Did you try calling them to see what was up?”

“Course. The first ten or so I called right away but all their numbers were out of service. After a while, I stopped tryin’ because we were hirin’ someone new every month.”

Erin’s frown deepens. “Don’t you think…that seems a little suspicious? You don’t think something’s happening to them, do you?”

Patty shrugs. “They were all kids. It didn’t surprise me that they all bailed with no notice.”

“But the out-of-service numbers…all of them disappearing without a trace after about a month…that seems like too much of a pattern to be a coincidence. Don’t you think?”

Patty leans in and lowers her voice even more. “Between you and me, there’s some freaky shit goin’ on around this place, don’t get me wrong. Did you know this building has one of the weirdest histories in all of New York? There’s been bad stuff goin’ down since before there was even a building here. You believe in ghosts?”

Erin freezes. “No,” she chokes out.

Patty shakes her head. “Man, I do. There’s gotta be a lot of pissed off spirits out there with all the messed-up shit that’s happened through history.”

Erin pushes right past that statement. “So you think something bad happened to the disappearing security guards?”

“Nah, I did some diggin’ and there were never any missing person reports or nothin’ filed for any of them. This place is shady, but not that shady. I dunno where they all went, but I think they’re fine, wherever they are.”

“What about Brawny? Did the new guys out there replace him?”

Patty’s face twists. “I was actually gonna fire the kid as soon as I knew we were bringing in an external security company, but when I phoned him up to break the news, same thing. Out of service. Maybe he had already decided to leave.”

“That’s so weird about the phone numbers.”

Patty shrugs. “Might be my office’s phone. I swear sometimes the technology around here has a mind of its own.”

“Right?” Erin says. “On my first day, my computer was acting all weird. I actually got this weird message but it wasn’t from any employee here. I don’t know who sent it.”

“See?” Patty waves her hand. “Weird shit. Did you tell IT? Maybe Sabrina can take a look—no, never mind, she’s gone.”

“Gone?” Erin repeats. “Gone where?”

“She’s on leave,” Patty says.

_Another_ one? What is _with_ all these employees off on leave? Erin tilts her head. “What kind of leave?”

Patty shakes her head. “Dunno. Leave requests go through department heads. When I sign off on them, I only see the person’s name and the dates requested.”

“Would the department head know the reason for the leave, then? That information should really be going in people’s files.”

“Maybe.” Patty shrugs, then straightens and moves to the door. “Anyway, I gotta get back to work. Good talk, Erin. Schedule those interviews, alright?”

“You got it,” Erin says.

 

By the end of the day, she’s contacted the single applicant to set up an interview for Monday, and then she sets up one for Holtz as well. She’s not even sure if the engineer gets work emails at home, so she might not know about it before she shows up on Monday, but that’s not Erin’s problem.

When 5:00 rolls around, she shuts down her computer, packs up her briefcase, and heads for home. Hawkins and Rorke check her bag on her way out, like usual.

As she steps into the elevator, she breathes a sigh of relief. She made it through her first week.

Patty’s right—there’s something strange going on. She’s not sure what it is, and she’s not entirely sure if she wants to know—but she’s here to do a job. If that job means she’ll have to do a bit of digging to get to the bottom of some of the personnel issues, so be it. She can be sleuthy. Creative problem-solving is right there on her résumé. Same thing, right?

 

Holtz isn’t in the elevator on Monday morning either, and worry gnaws at Erin’s stomach. Maybe it’s just because of her conversation with Patty and all the unexplained disappearances. She feels like she has a right to worry.

She keeps an eye out all day for her, but there’s no sign of her. As her 1:00pm interview slot draws closer, Erin wonders if she’s going to show up at all.

They’re planning to conduct the interviews in the boardroom—one of the few spaces that’s not walled in glass. The two of them set up shop with notepads and pens. Erin copied Holtz’s ‘résumé’ for each of them to consult as per standard interview protocol, and Patty snorts when she sees it.

“How’d she even get the job she has now?” Erin shuffles the papers in front of her. “There was no application or old résumé on file for her.”

“It’s ’cause she didn’t apply—she was poached from CERN.”

“CERN?” Erin repeats. “The European Organization for Nuclear Research? _Seriously?”_

God, no wonder her salary is so high. It would have to be, for her to leave CERN for this. The organization is incredibly prestigious. Erin can hardly believe it. Why did Holtz make it sound like she only took a job here because she needed the work?

“Yeah.” Patty laughs. “She’s a hot commodity, that one. One of the best nuclear engineers in the world. Girl was hand-picked by the CEO.”

“That explains why she walks around here like she owns the place.” Erin checks her watch. “Speaking of which, it’s 1:07. Do you think she’s coming?”

On cue, Holtz struts through the door with no discernible urgency. She drops her silver duffle bag on the table.

“Mornin’ ladies,” she drawls. “Can I sit at the head of the table?”

“Sit wherever you want,” Patty says.

“You’re late,” Erin says.

Holtz sprawls in the chair at the head of the table and swivels back and forth. “I don’t mind.”

Erin sighs and picks up her interview questions. “Let’s get started.”

“Hold on a sec.” Holtz leans over to adjust the height of the chair and sinks down to the lowest level with a little whoosh. She can barely be seen on the other side of the table, but she folds her arms on the surface and smiles at them expectantly.

Erin cranes her neck. “Are you going to stay down there for the interview?”

“Don’t discriminate,” Holtz says.

Patty snickers quietly.

Erin grits her teeth. “So, Dr. Holtzmann, why don’t you start by telling us a little bit about yourself.”

“Ooh, gettin’ formal.” Holtz wiggles her shoulders. “Alright. Holtzmann: Virgo, avid skier, gluten-full, and 100% jazzed to be here.”

“I meant more…in a professional sense? You know, like your background? Any attributes that would make you a good fit for the job?”

Holtz leans forward like she’s speaking into a mic. “I stand by my answer. I’d like it on the record.”

“You want me to put down…”

“Virgo, avid skier, gluten-full, 100% jazzed to be considered for the position.” Holtz nods. “Write it down.”

Erin squints at her, then copies it into her notes. She glances at Patty.

Patty consults the list of interview questions. “Tell us about your work experience and how you would apply it to this role.”

“Right, so, I worked for two-and-a-half weeks at a Chuck E. Cheese when I was 15. I think I really gained some solid people skills in that position. Customer service, y’know, that kind of thing. Interpersonal relations. Communication. Conversing with people. Talking to—”

“We get it,” Erin says.

“Only two weeks, huh? You quit?”

Holtz finger-guns Patty. “I was fired. Hacked into the Skee-Ball machines.”

“No shit?” Patty sits forward. “How?”

“Climbed right up on top of them and plunked the balls in manually—I had to be dragged out by security.”

“That’s not—‘hacked in’ implies that you did something to the machine inside, not that you did what every hooligan with half a brain does,” Erin says with a huff.

Holtz winks. “All the same—best job I’ve ever had.”

“Alright, we’re getting off track,” Erin says, mildly flustered by the wink. “Next question—actually, let’s just call this right now. We all know you’re not actually interested in this job.”

Holtz gasps, hand to her chest. “Why, I never. Erin, I don’t think you’re taking this interview seriously.”

“I don’t think _you’re_ taking this interview seriously.”

“I beg to differ. Ask me why I’d be a good fit for this job.”

Erin lets out a long sigh. “Fine. Why would you be a good fit for this job?”

“Alright, picture this—actually, let’s do this thing. Erin, you pretend to be someone on the phone. I’ll show you just how good of a receptionist I can be.”

Erin rolls her eyes but sets her pen down. “Fine. I happen to be a fan of roleplays.”

“Kinky.”

“As an _interview tool,_ Holtzmann.”

Holtz grins. “Okay, hit me.”

Erin holds her pinky and thumb up to her ear like a phone and makes a ringing noise.

Holtz lifts her own hand. “Go for Holtz.”

Erin lowers her hand. “Okay, time out, right there— _super_ unprofessional greeting. You didn’t say the company name, nor did you thank me for calling or ask how you could help.”

“Uh, I’m _also_ gonna call a time out. Are you covering the receiver of your imaginary phone to talk to me right now?”

“Yes,” Erin says haughtily, “I don’t want you to overhear. You should be doing the same. And if you’re going to put someone on hold, you need to tell them.”

Without breaking eye contact, Holtz lifts her own hand again. “Hey, I gotta put you on hold for a second—my uptight but admittedly cute HR Manager is giving me a lecture about phone etiquette.”

Erin looks to Patty for back-up, but the manager appears to be fully enjoying the performance.

“If you’re not going to be serious about this, I think we’re done here,” Erin says.

“I’m being dead serious.” Holtz makes a big show of pretending to take Erin off hold. “Sorry about that, I’m back now. How may I assist you today?”

Erin sighs. “Who am I speaking to?”

“This is Doris Bleeker.”

Erin squints. “Who?”

Holtz covers her fake-receiver. “That’s my receptionist alias.”

“You don’t—no aliases. Try again.”

“You didn’t cover your phone.”

“Just—shush.” Erin waves her hand. “Continue.”

Holtz leans back in her chair and swivels back and forth. “Who have I got here?”

“This is Erin Gilbert.”

“What a beautiful name. You sound pretty, Erin. Are you single?”

Patty snorts.

Erin covers her hand. “Respectfully, Patty, this is a gigantic waste of time. We could be doing real work right now.”

“Respectfully, ma’am,” Holtz says, “I think you’re judging a little too quickly. Side note: what are you wearing?”

Erin hangs up her phone. “There. You just lost NorthStar a customer.”

Holtz eyes her with mirth. “We don’t have customers.”

“An investor, then.”

“We don’t have investors.”

“Of course we have investors. A company of this size would have multiple shareholders.” Erin glances at Patty for confirmation. “Right?”

“Not important,” Patty says. “Erin’s right, we’re just wastin’ time now. Sell us in less than a minute why we should hire you for the job, and then we’re done.”

Holtz sits up straighter and cracks her knuckles. “Alrighty. Well, first up, as you’ll see by my résumé, I’m more than qualified for the position.”

Patty nods.

“Unsubstantiated,” Erin interrupts. “Your résumé is nothing.”

“First of all, that’s highly insulting,” Holtz says, “and second of all, you’re telling me that it takes a more than a PhD to answer a phone?”

“No, but—”

“I rest my case. I’m overqualified.”

“She’s got a point,” Patty says.

“It doesn’t _matter_ ,” Erin says. “She’s not going to take the position if we offer it to her.”

“She might,” Holtz says with a crooked smile.

Erin rolls her eyes. “It would be a 76% drop in salary. I highly doubt it.”

Holtz raises an eyebrow. “Someone’s been snooping in my file.”

Erin’s face heats up. “I opened it to add your résumé to it.”

Holtz winks. “Sure.”

“We’re done here, right?” Erin tidies up her papers. “I’d say we’re done here.”

“Thanks for comin’ in, Holtz,” Patty says with a smile. “We’ll be in touch.”

“Thank _you_ for having me.” Holtz stands and comes around the side of the table to shake Erin’s hand with both hands. “A pleasure as always, Dr. Gilbert.”

“I—I don’t have my doctorate?”

“It’s aspirational,” Holtz says with a crooked smile, giving Erin’s hand a squeeze before releasing it. She salutes the two of them. “Holtzmann out.”

Then she departs from the boardroom, leaving the two of them to process the interview—if you could even call it that.

“Well that was entertaining,” Patty says cheerfully. “When does the real applicant get here?”

 

Patty glances over the résumé in front of her. “Thanks for coming in on short notice, uh…”

“Kevin,” Erin fills in. “A very manly name. My name’s Erin…with an E, for everything you want.”

Patty gives her a strange look and clears her throat. “Kevin, why don’t you tell us a bit about your work experience?”

“Oh, well, lots of different jobs,” the candidate says. “Did the ‘actor’ thing…”

He puts the word in air quotes, alarmingly, and then sits back expectantly like he’s finished speaking.

Erin looks down. “Your résumé says you have reception experience?”

“Ah, yes. I’m good at ‘recepting’ frisbees on my Ultimate team.”

Erin squints. “Do you mean intercepting?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Kevin says.

“O…kaaay.” Erin crosses that line off his résumé.

“Would it be okay if I bring my cat to work?”

“Uh…” Patty glances at Erin. “Sorry, man: cats aren’t allowed in the office.”

“Oh, I don’t have a cat. It’s a dog. His name is My Cat.”

“Your…dog’s name is My Cat?” Patty repeats.

“No, Mike Hat.”

“Your dog’s name is Mike, last name Hat,” Erin says.

“Well, his full name is Michael Hat,” Kevin says.

“Alright, well, there’s no dogs allowed here either,” Patty says. “Only service animals.”

“That’s alright, he lives with my mom,” Kevin says.

“Glad we got that figured out,” Erin mutters. “Well, Kevin, I think we’ve, uh…heard everything we need to hear…”

“Erin, could I talk to you over there for a second?” Patty nods her head at the corner of the room.

“Um, sure.” Erin stands and joins Patty in the corner. “Don’t listen!” she warns Kevin.

“I won’t!”

“Oh, he covered his eyes,” Erin says. She tears her attention away from him and onto Patty. “Okay, as much as I’d like to have him here to look at…”

“Hey, none of that now. You’re in HR. You should know better.”

“Sorry,” Erin says. “But seriously. We can call this right now, right? We can wait for some more qualified applicants to come in.”

“Did you know it’s called a boardroom because of how bored people get in meetings?” Kevin says.

“I don’t think we’re gonna get any other applicants. We’re desperate, Erin. He could surprise us. S’like Holtzmann said, it doesn’t take a PhD to answer phones.”

Kevin’s neck is circling as he tracks the ceiling fan spinning overhead.

They both stare at him for a moment.

“Kevin, the job’s yours,” Patty says.

“Welcome aboard,” Erin says weakly.

 

They walk him to the door, stopping by the reception desk on their way. Kevin admires the large fish tank built into the wall behind the desk. You can see into the copier room through it—Holtz is bent over the counter, stapling something.

He taps on the glass. “You know, an aquarium is a submarine for fish.”

“Very insightful,” Erin says.

“We’ll see you tomorrow, alright?” Patty says.

Kevin waves as he makes for the door, tripping over air on his way.

The door has barely shut behind him when Holtz pops out of the copier room.

“Hired the beefcake, huh?”

“Is he attractive? I didn’t notice,” Erin says.

Patty snorts. “I’m goin’ back to work. I’ll be in my office.”

“I regret to inform you that you didn’t get the job,” Erin says once Patty has left.

Holtz leans against the reception counter. “Guess I should’ve turned on the charm more if I wanted to beat out that specimen. Or am I just not your type?”

“I’m not answering that,” Erin says. “He had a better interview than you, plain and simple”

“Ah, well. Wasn’t meant to be. I gave it my best shot.”

“I sure hope not,” Erin mutters.

Holtz smirks in a way that seems to say _you ain’t seen nothing yet_ , and Erin doesn’t stop thinking about that smirk for a long time.

 

 


	5. Violations

Erin is beginning to discover that Holtz is essentially an HR nightmare.

One day, when Holtz is in her office, Erin walks in and drops a binder on her desk.

Holtz looks up. “What’s this?”

“Dress code policy.”

“Did you have this printed and bound just for me?”

Erin gives her a look. “You’re wearing a crop top. In an office.”

“So?”

“It’s unprofessional.”

“It’s not a formal office.”

“It could be distracting.”

Holtz raises an eyebrow. “Are you distracted by it?”

“No,” Erin splutters. “Other people could be distracted by it.”

“What, like men? You know I don’t give a fuck.”

“Language,” Erin chides.

 Holtz swivels back and forth in her chair. “Don’t police my body or my speech, Erin. You’re not my supervisor.”

Erin crosses her arms. “Fine. I’ll go to your supervisor on this. I’m sure she doesn’t appreciate the inappropriate attire in the lab. It’s a safety hazard.”

“Gorin doesn’t give a fuck either. Go in there and you’ll just piss her off.”

Erin glares at her. “What did I just say about language? You can’t keep mouthing off to me, Dr. Holtzmann. I may not be your direct supervisor, but it’s my job to enforce our policies. I’ll be forced to take this to the next level if you don’t cooperate.”

Holtz raises an eyebrow with a smirk. “The next level, huh? Is that a promise?”

Erin huffs. “Listen, I know that you think that you can do whatever you want because the CEO hand-picked you for this job—yeah, Patty told me about that, by the way—but I don’t care. You’re not above the rules and you need to respect my authority. Got it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Holtz says with a wide grin.

Erin turns on her heel and walks away, heart racing as she does so.

 

The next day, Holtzmann shows up at Erin’s door in a full tux.

“Very funny,” Erin says. “You’re a regular Jim Halpert.”

“I’m just following the dress code policy,” Holtz says with a straight face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. By the way—I seem to remember reading that all skirts have to be no higher than two inches above the ankle. You, madam, are in direct violation right now.”

Erin looks down at her knee-length pencil skirt. “That’s not—okay, fine, the dress code is antiquated and needs to be updated. That does _not_ mean your midriff can be visible at work.”

“Sure, I understand,” Holtz says. “I wouldn’t want to distract you.”

Erin sighs and turns to face her computer screen. “Go back to work, Holtzmann.”

Holtz bows. “As you wish.”

 

Erin is typing out a harassment policy when Patty sends her an IM asking her to come to her office.

As Erin approaches Patty’s office, she can see Holtz lounging on one of the low couches, and she groans to herself.

“Hi, you wanted to see me?” she says cheerfully when she gets to the door, choosing to ignore her.

“Come in,” Patty says. “Holtz wanted to meet with the two of us.”

Erin shuts the door behind her. “What’s going on?”

“I’m here to request workplace accommodation,” Holtz says. “Which, as you know, you are legally required to carry out no matter what.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Erin says. “But absolutely, we can listen to your request and provide reasonable accommodations if necessary.”

“Same thing,” Holtz says. “Anyway, I need a new office.”

Patty’s brow creases. “What’s wrong with yours?”

“It’s got a direct view of Erin’s office. I have to sit there and watch her work all day. It’s distracting. I mean, look at her. Could _you_ get any work done with something that beautiful staring you in the face all day?”

Erin turns beet red. Patty just stares at Holtz.

“Alright, why don’t I give your office to someone else and you can stay in the lab all day like the rest of the engineers, how ’bout that? That work for everyone?”

Holtz stares back. “On second thought, I think my office is just fine where it is. I’ll just start wearing sunglasses so I’m not blinded while I work.”

“Get outta my office.”

“Yes, ma’am.” Holtz hops up and skitters past Erin, winking on her way out of the office.

Patty sighs once she’s gone.

“Not having any of that today, huh?” Erin jokes.

“I got bigger fish to fry today, Erin,” Patty says tiredly.

“Anything I can help with?”

Patty hesitates. “Nah, man. Thanks, but I’m just stressed. My neck’s on the line right now and I’ve got people watching my every move. It’s startin’ to get to me.”

Erin frowns. “Does it have to do with the security stuff?”

“I can’t talk about it with you,” Patty says quickly.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to—I’ll get back to work.” Erin backs up towards the door.

“Keep Holtzmann in line, alright?” Patty says. “I love her, but I don’t have time for her antics right now.”

“Understood,” Erin says.

 

“Holtzmann.”

“A-yup?”

“What is that?”

“What’s what?”

“No, we’re not doing that. I know you know what I’m talking about. What _is_ that?”

“Chinchilla.”

“Right. Of course. Can you tell me why on earth you have a chinchilla on your shoulder? At work? In a nuclear research facility?”

“They get lonely at home.”

“…Is that a non-binary chinchilla, or are there multiple chinchillas in this office right now?”

“I appreciate the inclusivity, but I’m gonna have to go with the answer that will undoubtably get me in more trouble. Esmerelda here uses she/her pronouns. Oatmeal, on the other hand—”

“Get them _out of here, Holtzmann.”_

“ _Them_ as in all of them, or just Oatmeal?”

Erin turns and walks away.

 

“Heyyy, Erin.”

Erin doesn’t even look up. “Not now. Don’t you have work to do? Or do you get paid a six-figure salary to goof off and irritate me all day?”

“Whoa. I’m sensing some hostility. That isn’t very professional HR behavior.”

Erin looks up with a glare. “What do you want, Holtzmann?”

“Am I ever going to earn ‘Holtz’ back?”

Erin turns back to her work. “Is that what you came to bother me about?”

“No, I came to ask you if you’d want to eat lunch with me tomorrow.”

Erin’s head snaps up again in surprise. “What?”

“Lunch? With me? In the breakroom? I always see you eating your lunch alone in your office and it’s super sad. Thought you might want to be social and have some company?”

“Oh. Right. That’s what you meant. Of course. The breakroom.”

“What did you think I meant?” The corner of Holtz’s mouth ticks up. “Did you think I was asking you on a date? Isn’t that against the rules?”

“Never mind,” Erin says. “Um. Sure. Yes. Lunch in the breakroom tomorrow sounds nice. Thanks, Holtz.”

Holtz grins. “Awesome. It’s a date,” she says, saluting before she slips out of the door and strolls back towards the lab.

Erin’s cheeks redden.

 

Erin is weirdly nervous when she comes in to work the next day. She changed plans three times about what she was bringing for lunch, irrationally worrying that Holtz will be judging whatever she eats. PB&J? What if Holtz is allergic to peanuts? Egg salad sandwich? Too stinky. Leftover pasta from the night before? What if she makes a big mess of the microwave when she’s reheating it in the breakroom?

She ends up packing a turkey sandwich. Plain and boring, most certainly, but hopefully Holtz won’t comment on it.

All morning, she keeps an eye out for Holtz. As it creeps closer to lunchtime and there’s no sign of her, Erin starts to get anxious. Is she supposed to meet her in the breakroom? Will Holtz come by her office? When does Holtz usually take lunch, anyway?

Noon passes. 12:15. 12:30.

She decides to go check in the breakroom, just in case Holtz is there waiting for her. Erin has a clear view of the door from her office, but maybe she just missed her.

She crosses the office quickly, lunch in hand, and rolls her shoulders back right before stepping into the breakroom.

It’s empty except for a familiar face sitting at a table in the corner.

“Oh,” Erin says, flustered. “Hi. Jennifer, right? From PR?”

The woman isn’t eating. She doesn’t even have a lunch in front of her. She’s just sitting there.

“Hello, Erin,” she says. “Dr. Holtzmann isn’t here.”

“I—” Erin frowns. “How did you know—where is she?”

“She’s gone.”

“Gone? Gone where?”

Jennifer tilts her head ever-so-slightly. “Are you enjoying working at NorthPoint, Erin?”

Erin blinks. “You mean NorthStar?”

Jennifer stares.

Warning bells are ringing in Erin’s ears. Something is wrong.

She backs up out of the room. “I’m sorry, I have to go,” she stammers on her way out.

As soon as she’s cleared the threshold, she turns and walks quickly in the direction of Patty’s office, unable to keep herself from looking over her shoulder a few times to see if Jennifer is following her.

She enters Patty’s office without knocking and immediately shuts the door behind her, wishing desperately that they had more privacy than the stupid glass walls allow.

“Erin? Now’s not a good ti—”

“Where’s Holtz?”

“On leave,” Patty says.

“What kind of leave?” Erin asks slowly.

Patty picks through the papers on her desk. “Don’t think it specified. Not sick leave. Personal leave. That’s all I know.”

“When did you get the requisition?”

“Dr. Gorin dropped it off this morning. One for Dr. Yates, too.”

“Something’s wrong,” Erin says. “Holtz and I made plans yesterday to have lunch together in the breakroom today. She wouldn’t have done that if she knew she was going to be off.” She pauses. “Unless she’s messing with me?”

“Look, Erin, don’t worry about it. A couple times a month, her and Dr. Yates take a few days off without much warning. As long as Dr. Gorin okays it, it’s not really our problem.”

“But—”

“Is that all you came in here for?”

Erin swallows. “Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to bust in like that, I just…I was just talking to Jennifer and she kind of freaked me out.”

“Who?”

“Jennifer? From PR?”

Patty stares at her. “We don’t have a PR department.”

Erin frowns. “I swear that’s what she told me. Maybe I misheard? I think her last name was Lynch? Brown hair?”

Patty stands from her desk. “Where were you talking to her?”

“Break—”

Before Erin can finish the word, Patty has pushed past her. Erin follows her.

They reach the breakroom to find it empty. Patty swears under her breath, turns, and starts running in the direction of reception. Erin jogs after her.

“What’s going on?”

“There’s nobody named Jennifer Lynch who works here,” Patty says. “Kevin, hey, has anybody left the office in the last ten minutes?”

“Eastern time or Pacific?”

“Why does that matter?”

“Well, you see, there’s a three-hour difference.”

Patty stares him down for a second longer, then turns and makes a break for the front door. She pushes it open and the two of them spill into the hallway. Hawkins and Rorke look them up and down.

“Has anyone left the office in the last fifteen minutes? Specifically a brunette woman?”

The two security guards exchange a glance.

“No,” Rorke says.

Patty crosses her arms. “Sure about that?”

“I think we would know if someone left,” Hawkins says.

“I sure hope so,” Patty says angrily, “because we are now in full lockdown for the rest of the day. Not a single person is to enter or leave this office without my clearance, you understand me? I need a full security report printed logging every employee who has swiped their card today. Then I need the surveillance footage from the last 24 hours pulled.”

The men exchange another look.

“Nobody unauthorized has entered or left the office, we can assure you,” Hawkins says.

Rorke smiles. “Why don’t you ladies go back inside and do your jobs, and let us do our jobs out here?”

“I don’t trust y’all to do your damn job.” Patty hooks her thumb at the door behind her. “There is a woman posing as an employee in there and your sorry asses let her walk right past you. Do you understand how serious this is? Y’all better _pray_ that there hasn’t been another breach on your watch, because you will be out of here faster than you can _blink_ and I will _personally_ make sure that your company never gets another job in this city again. That security report and footage better be on my desk in the next five minutes. Am. I. _Understood?”_

“Understood,” the two men echo sullenly.

Patty swipes her card and opens the door. Erin beeps her card as well.

“I thought we were on lockdown?” Rorke says, glaring at Erin.

“She’s with me,” Patty says with a glare of her own, ushering Erin in after her.

Patty is seething as the door shuts behind them. She doesn’t say anything as they walk to her office. Erin feels like she’s supposed to follow.

Inside, Patty sits at her desk and lets out a long sigh.

“I’m so sorry,” Erin says. “I had no idea that—”

“You wouldn’t have known. Take a seat.”

Erin sits.

“Tell me every detail about this woman. Is this the first time you’ve seen her?”

Erin bites her lip. “No, I met her on my first day here. She was in the bathroom. I only talked to her for a minute. She told me her name and told me I was lucky to be working here, and then she vanished.”

“How many times have you seen her?”

“Today was the only other time. It was weird—I walked into the breakroom looking for Holtz, and she seemed to know that’s who I was there to meet. She was the one who told me Holtz was gone.”

“Is that all you talked about?”

“Yeah,” Erin says, trying to think back. “Well, she asked me how I was liking working here—except, I guess this was a warning sign, she got the name wrong. She called it NorthPoint. I thought that was kind of weird for someone supposedly working in PR.”

“What did you tell her? When she asked how you liked it?”

“Nothing,” Erin says quickly. “All I did was correct her on the name. I didn’t give her any other information. The whole conversation probably only took 30 seconds.”

Patty’s face twists and she gazes out the glass wall of her office. “She’s gotta still be here. We’re gonna do a sweep. See if you can spot her. Then we’re going to take a look at the security footage and the report and see who she is—or who she’s been pretending to be. She had to use _someone’s_ card to get in.”

“I don’t get it—if she was trying to pose as an employee, why would she make up a department that doesn’t exist?” Erin wonders aloud. “Why wouldn’t she pretend to be part of a department that’s actually here?”

“Good question,” Patty says. “I wonder if she’s talked to anyone else.”

“Well, she knew that Holtz was gone.”

Patty looks back at her. “Yeah. How would she have known that?”

“Maybe we should check the lab first,” Erin says.

Patty nods grimly.

 

They search the entire office and can find no trace of the woman. Nobody remembers seeing her.

In the lab, Erin resists the urge to ask Dr. Gorin about Holtz and Abby’s unexpected leave of absence. Something tells her the events are connected, even if Patty isn’t concerned.

Dr. Gorin’s irritation with their presence in the lab is enough to make Erin bite her tongue, though.

Back in Patty’s office, Rorke is waiting for them. He gives them a sheet of paper with the log of every card swipe all day.

“And the security tapes?” Patty prompts.

“Unavailable,” Rorke says.

“What do you mean, ‘unavailable?’” Patty says slowly.

“They’ve been wiped.”

Patty swears loudly. “Just our office circuit? What about the building’s tapes? Lobby and elevator?”

“All gone.”

“How is that _possible?_ What the hell are we paying y’all for? This is unacceptable.”

“It’s not our job to monitor central building surveillance. That’s out of our jurisdiction.”

“I don’t give a shit,” Patty says. “Get outta my office.”

Rorke presses his lips together in a thin line like he wants to say something else but thinks better of it. He leaves the office.

Erin watches him walk towards the exit. “Do you trust those guys?”

“I dunno, man. It wasn’t my idea to bring in an external security company. CEO’s orders. I’m the one who hired these goons, though, so if there’s a problem with them, it’s my ass on the line.”

“What company are they with?”

“Upper West Security.”

“Never heard of it.”

“Neither had I. They had good client testimonials, though.” Patty hesitates. “Also, half a dozen other security companies turned us down before them.”

“Seriously?”

Patty covers her face with her hand. “If there’s been another breach, I’m going to be skinned alive.”

“Hey. We’ll find her,” Erin says.

“We better.”

 

They don’t. Erin and Patty screen every single employee that leaves that evening, and then after everyone’s gone home, the security guards do a full search of every possible hiding place in the office. There’s no sign of Jennifer. Either they were lying about not seeing her, or the woman has a superhuman ability to vanish into thin air.

At this point, Erin isn’t sure which theory is more plausible.

 

On Friday, she’s in Patty’s office, showing her the updated dress code policy that she’s been working on to take her mind off Holtz’s absence and the stuff with Jennifer. Patty is about to sign off on it when Kevin pokes his head into the office.

“Hi, boss. There’s a brownie on line one.”

Patty sighs. “Kev, you know you can transfer calls right from your desk, right?”

“Remember the Post-It I left on your phone?” Erin draws a little square in the air. “The one with the instructions?”

“Oh, I shredded that.”

Patty shakes her head. “Course. ’Cause why wouldn’t you?”

“Thought it was a phone message,” Kevin says.

“That’s even worse,” Erin says.

“Who’s on the phone?” Patty says.

“A brownie,” Kevin repeats.

“Try again,” Patty says tiredly.

“Wait—” Erin’s brow creases. “Do you mean Brawny?”

“That’s what I said.”

Slowly, Erin and Patty look at each other.

“Back to your desk, Kevin. And shut the door,” Patty says. She waits until he’s done so, and then carefully lifts her phone to her ear and hits the button to answer it. “Hello?”

Erin watches her. Patty repeats the greeting, her face slowly morphing into confusion.

_What?_ Erin mouths.

Patty reaches and presses the speaker button on the phone. The room immediately fills with the sound of someone breathing. Erin makes a face.

Patty puts the phone down and leans closer to the base. “Kevin, is that you on the line?”

Erin looks over at the reception counter. “Nope, he’s…not at his desk. I don’t know where he is.”

“Who is this?” Patty says.

Breathing.

“Prank call?” Erin whispers.

Patty shakes her head. “Brawny? Is that you?”

Breathing.

“Must be a butt-dial,” Patty says, reaching for the release button.

“ _Run,”_ a voice monotones.

Patty’s hand flies back. “What the—”

There’s a click and the line goes dead.

“Oh, hell no,” Patty says. “I’m out. That’s creepy as shit.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means we need to get someone in here to do a culturally-sensitive sage burning, that’s what that means. That is a whole world of nope right there.”

“I’m sure it was just a prank call. Can you see the number?”

Patty pushes the buttons on the phone base like it’s spring-loaded with a booby-trap. “Yeah,” she says, head craning to see the number without getting too close. “There’s a number listed here.”

“Give me a second,” Erin says.

“No, Erin, don’t leave me in here alo—”

Erin is already in the hall.

She returns a minute later, file in hand. “Okay, read out the number?”

Patty pulls it up again and reads it out loud.

“Yeah,” Erin says, stepping closer and showing Patty the open file. “That’s Brawny’s number, alright. I thought you said it was out of service?”

“It _was,_ ” Patty says.

“Let’s try calling back,” Erin says.

“Nope. _You_ can do that.”

Erin rolls her eyes. “Come on.” She pulls the phone towards her and hits redial, then speaker.

It doesn’t ring at all, just goes right to a message that tells them it’s out of service.

“ _See?_ ”

Erin frowns. “That’s not possible. We _just_ got a call from that number.”

“I’m tellin’ you,” Patty says, “this is all kinds of shady.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing,” Erin says, but even as she says it, she knows she’s lying.

An employee who doesn’t exist, a company that nobody wants to work for, mysterious messages of warning, and dozens of missing people—including Erin’s closest friend in the company as well as her worst enemy. She’s beginning to think she’s stumbled upon something seriously messed-up here.

And to think—at the beginning of the week, her biggest problem was Holtz’s antics.

Now her biggest problem might be Holtz for another reason.

Where _is_ she?

 


	6. Reunion

On Monday, Erin is standing in the elevator when a hand shoots between the closing doors.

Holtz slides in and lights up when she sees Erin.

“Holtz! Oh, thank god,” Erin says.

“Wow! That’s quite the reception,” Holtz says as she comes to stand beside Erin. “Sorry for standing you up the other day. Something came up.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna need more of an explanation than that.”

Holtz clicks her tongue. “Sorry, can’t give you one.”

“I’m not asking as your HR Manager, I’m asking as a friend.”

“Aww, you consider us friends?”

Erin crosses her arms.

“I still can’t tell you,” Holtz says. “It would break a sacred bond of trust.”

“Abby?”

“She takes pacts very seriously.”

“Trust me, I know,” Erin mutters.

The elevator opens and they step out into the NorthStar hallway.

“Photo ID ladies,” Hawkins says.

“Since when?” Holtz says.

“Welcome back,” Erin says dryly. She hands her employee ID and driver’s license to Rorke. “Seriously, every day? Don’t pretend you don’t know me.”

“Can’t be too safe,” Rorke says. “Didn’t you teach us that?”

Erin rolls her eyes and takes her ID back. Hawkins finishes searching her bag and hands that back too.

Holtz hands them her ID next. “Seems like a bit much, doesn’t it, boys?”

“Does it?” Hawkins glares at Erin. “Hadn’t crossed our minds at all.”

“Okay, I get it,” Erin says. “This isn’t my fault.”

“What’d you do, Gilbert?” Holtz says as she takes back her ID and they swipe into the suite.

Erin waits until the door has closed behind them. “I didn’t do anything. There was another security breach while you were off doing god knows what.”

“Really? Sweet.”

“No, not sweet. There was a woman in here pretending to be an employee.”

“Oh, Jennifer?”

Erin stops dead. “You know her?”

“Yeah, of course. I talk to her all the time.”

“Did you know she wasn’t a real employee?”

Holtz shrugs. “Well, yeah. There’s no PR department.”

“And you didn’t tell anyone? _Holtzmann!_ They’re investigating a security breach and you just sat back and said nothing?”

“Not my problem. I’m not a snitch.”

“Oh my god,” Erin says. “What have you told her?”

“Nothing classified. Relax. I mostly just hit on her.”

Erin pales. “You asked her out?”

“I’ve tried. Keep getting shot down.” Holtz’s mouth twists. “Problem?”

“Uh, yeah, Holtz, I’d say asking out a company spy is a bit of a problem.”

“Pssh. She’s not a spy.”

“What would you call her, then?”

“I dunno. I could see her liking ‘babe.’ Probably none of the cutesy ones like ‘sweetheart’ or ‘pudding.’ Maybe she’s into kinky shit. ‘Daddy?’”

Erin stares at her, then turns and walks away.

“Wait—” Holtz catches her by the arm.

Erin slowly turns around and folds her arms. “Are you done?”

“I know what this is all about. You’re jealous.”

“Nope.”

“Fine, but you’re still upset that I stood you up for lunch.”

Erin nods slightly. “Obviously.”

“I’ll make it up to you. Today? Noon?”

Erin hesitates, trying to remember what she packed for lunch today. “Fine,” she says before she can overthink it.

 

At precisely noon, Holtz appears in Erin’s doorway.

“M’lady,” she says. “May I escort you to the lunchroom?”

Erin blushes and reaches for her lunch.

“So you’re seriously not going to tell me where you were last week?” Erin asks as they walk across the office.

“I can’t go spilling information willy nilly, Gilbert,” Holtz says. “Have you forgotten that we’ve had a security breach?”

“You’re telling me that your whereabouts are as classified as the research the lab is doing,” Erin says dryly.

Holtz gives her a look, one eyebrow raised. Like she’s waiting for Erin to put two and two together.

It’s at that moment that they step into the breakroom, and Erin freezes.

“Oh, perfect, thanks for getting us a table,” Holtz says cheerfully.

Erin takes a step backwards. “What is she doing here?”

“What is _she_ doing here?” Abby spits.

“Surprise! Thought it was about time that we all sit down together and have a nice little chat,” Holtz says. “Y’know, bury the hatchet.”

“Oh, yeah, sure,” Abby says. “Erin, why don’t you dig it out of my back where you left it?”

“Ha ha.” Erin swallows. “I get it. I’m the backstabber. I think it’s been a whole hour since you last brought that up.”

Abby stands up from the table. “I’m leaving.”

“Chill,” Holtz says. “You’re staying. So are you, Erin. I’m serious. This crap happened _20 years ago_. Dontcha think it’s time to talk things out? For the purposes of maintaining a civil workplace, at least?”

Erin lifts her chin. “I guess we could…talk.”

Abby slowly sits back down. “Fine. But I reserve the right to leave at any moment.”

“I’ll take it,” Holtz says. “Come on, Erin, take a seat.”

Erin takes a hesitant seat across from Abby. Holtz sits at the side of the table like she’s ready to referee.

Abby waits expectantly.

Erin clears her throat. “Abby, I…I’m sorry.”

Abby leans forward onto her elbows, knocking her spoon out of her bowl of soup as she does so. “For what?”

“For…abandoning you,” Erin says quietly.

“Stabbing me in the back.”

“I didn’t mean to stab you in the back,” Erin protests. “I didn’t mean to hurt you,” she says, quieter.

“You ghosted me, Erin,” Abby says pointedly. “How could you not know that would hurt me?”

“I had to,” Erin says, staring at her bagged lunch.

“Oh, you _had to_ disappear out of nowhere and cut off all contact with me? Really? If I hadn’t heard the rumours, I would’ve thought you were _dead_ , Erin.”

Erin hangs her head in shame. “I’m sorry,” she whispers.

“I wish you _had_ died, Erin.”

Holtz’s head snaps to Abby. “ _Hey._ ”

“No, seriously,” Abby says. “I’d rather that than knowing you just ran away and cut me out of your life because you were too embarrassed by me and our work.”

Erin looks up. “That’s what you think happened?”

“Uh, yeah, Erin, I’m not stupid. It was right after our big presentation. Our first time sharing our work with the world in an academic setting. Our classmates laughed us off the podium and our professor failed us, and you freaked out and then I never saw you again. It’s not hard to connect the dots.”

Erin picks at her cuticles. “But you heard the rumours?”

“Of course I heard. As if I gave a shit what they were saying about you. They said the same thing about me, too. Called me the same names. Only I didn’t quit school and go into hiding like a coward.”

Erin closes her eyes and tries to not feel Holtz’s gaze on her. She inhales roughly. “They were true. The rumours.”

There’s a pause. “What do you mean?”

“My parents found out about our research,” Erin says in a flat voice. She opens her eyes and slowly looks up to see Abby’s reaction. “I was committed to a psychiatric ward. I wasn’t allowed to contact anyone, and by the time I got out, I was too ashamed to tell you where I’d been.”

Abby just stares. In Erin’s peripherals, she can see the shock on Holtz’s face.

“You were 20,” Abby says. “Your parents couldn’t have—”

“I signed the papers, Abby. It was voluntary.”

“I don’t understand.”

“You’re told that you’re crazy every single day of your life from the time you’re eight years old, and it starts to get to you,” Erin says. She laughs once. “There you go. Now you know the truth.” She looks at Holtz. “Go ahead, tell everyone. Have me fired for mental instability. I don’t care.” She tries for bravado but ends up with a waver in her voice instead.

“Why would we do that?” Holtz says. At Erin’s stare, her face falls. “Oh shit. _Seriously?_ ”

Abby’s eyes widen too. “Columbia sacked you because—”

“Yep,” Erin says glumly.

Holtz shakes her head. “I _knew_ it was suspicious that you took a job here. Nobody wants to work here.”

“Uh. _You_ took a job here,” Erin points out. “Over CERN, no less.”

“Well, yeah, but that’s because—” Holtz breaks off when Abby elbows her. “Uh.”

Erin sits up straighter. “What?”

Holtz leans closer to Abby. “Can’t we tell her now? Don’t tell me you’re still holding a grudge after all that.”

Abby appraises Erin. “No. I…I owe you an apology. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still pissed that you ghosted me. But I understand why, now. And I forgive you for abandoning me with no notice.”

“Thanks, Abby,” Erin says quietly, knowing full well that that’s as good of a resolution as she’s going to get. Abby is the most stubborn person she’s ever met, so for her to forgive at all is a win. “So what is it that you don’t want Holtz to tell me?”

Holtz and Abby both simultaneously look towards the door to make sure nobody is within earshot, then they bend their heads close. Erin leans in as well.

“I don’t know how many nuclear research labs you’ve been in,” Holtz says, “but that one we’ve got back there is a _damn_ nice facility.”

Erin frowns. “Okay?”

Abby clears her throat. “Erin, you know that abandoned research of ours that you’ve spent the last twenty years trying to forget?”

“Yeah?”

Holtz and Abby share a glance, then look back at Erin.

“Oh,” Erin breathes after a lengthy pause. Her forehead irons out and she slumps back in her chair. “ _Oh._ I see.”

Does she ever.

 


	7. Research

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should stop finishing these chapters at like 10pm and then immediately posting them without even reading them over to check for errors. Sorry?

“Erin?” Holtz waves a hand in front of her face. “You haven’t said anything for a minute and 23 seconds. You okay?”

“I’m just…processing,” Erin says. “So…when you told me that you were working on your own stuff back in the lab that the company doesn’t know about, you meant…”

“Paranormal research, yeah.”

“And that device that was confiscated by the security guards?”

Holtz groans. “Don’t remind us. Still mourning that loss.”

“It was a PKE meter,” Abby says bitterly. “It was beautiful.”

“Hey, I’m working on it,” Holtz says.

“Holtzmann is a brilliant engineer,” Abby says. “I don’t know if you knew that.”

“I did, actually. Gathered that from the fact that she was working at CERN.”

Holtz smirks. “Still on that, huh?”

“Yeah, Holtz, because it was _CERN_. I still don’t get why you would give that up.”

“Sure, CERN is all well and good, but how could I pass up the chance to work in a haunted nuclear research facility?”

Erin pulls back. “You think NorthStar is haunted?”

Holtz gives her a look. “No, Er-in,” she says, singsonging the syllables, “every office has mysterious omnipotent employees in fake departments who have the ability to disappear into thin air and don’t appear on security tapes.”

Erin freezes. “Jennifer is a _ghost?_ ” she gasps out.

Holtz breaks into a wide grin. “Nah, I’m just screwing with you. I’m pretty sure she’s just an undercover reporter or something. Could you imagine, though?”

“The look on your _face_ ,” Abby says.

“Real mature, guys,” Erin says. “Is all this a big joke? You guys aren’t actually researching…this. You’re just messing with me.”

“No, no, the research is real,” Holtz says.

“We’ve been busy actualizing what we just theorized about back in school,” Abby says proudly.

“Abby and I used to work together back before my CERN days,” Holtz says. “At the Kenneth P. Higgins Institute. The glory days.”

“Then this one abandoned me for her bigshot job in Switzerland,” Abby says.

Erin lifts her eyebrows. “How come you don’t still hold a grudge against _her?”_

“I do,” Abby says.

“Buutttt I won back her favour when I was poached from CERN, discovered that this place is a goldmine, and talked Gorin into hiring her.” Without looking, Holtz holds her hand out for a high five and Abby smacks it.

“What have you guys…accomplished?”

“Of the work that we’re paid to do here? Lots. Definitely. Our jobs haven’t been impacted at all by our side research.” Holtz turns to Abby and covers her hand with her mouth to stage whisper. “She’s still our HR Manager.”

“Thanks,” Erin says dryly.

Holtz winks. “As for our personal projects, well…ask us where we were last week.”

“I already did,” Erin says warily. “You told me it was classified.”

“Well that was _before_ ,” Holtz says.

“Fine. Where were you?”

“We got a tip about a possibly haunted historic mansion,” Abby says. “Staked it out for three days with all our equipment.”

“Seriously?”

“Yup,” Holtz says, popping the P. “Turned out to be a bust. Nada. The place has been making a killing off their ghost story—it’s an awesome one, too—but there’s nothing there. All our readings were normal. Not a single bump in the night. To think I wasted 18 cans of Pringles and slept in a period costume for nothing.”

“Nobody asked you to do that,” Abby says.

“The historian was a titch upset.”

“You got crumbs in the pockets of Sir Aldridge’s waistcoat,” Abby says.

“It was in the name of science,” Holtz deadpans.

“Can we focus?” Erin waves at them. “So you’re telling me you bailed on work for three days for the purposes of paranormal investigation?”

“Yep,” Holtz and Abby say simultaneously.

“Patty told me you guys take a leave like this several times a month. Is it always for the same thing?”

“Yep,” they echo.

“And Dr. Gorin signs off on this?”

“Gorin doesn’t ask a lot of questions,” Holtz says. “I like that about her.”

“So, no,” Erin clarifies. “And Patty has no idea?”

Abby crosses her arms. “Are you going to tell her?”

Erin hesitates. “No.”

Holtz elbows Abby. “Told you she’s cool.”

“I’ve known her for a lot longer than you have, Holtzmann,” Abby says.

Erin squints. “I can’t tell if that’s supposed to be a burn against me or if you’re agreeing with her?”

Abby smiles and shakes her head. “Welcome back, Erin.”

“Thank you,” Erin says, unable to stop a smile of her own. “It’s good to be back.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, this conversation has taken so long that I need to go re-heat my soup.”

“She takes her soup very seriously,” Holtz says to Erin.

“I’ve known her for a lot longer than you have, Holtzmann,” Erin says, still smiling as she watches her best friend walk to the microwave.

 

Later that day, Erin is updating yet another ancient policy when Patty comes to her door.

“Erin? A word?”

Erin rolls back from her desk. “What’s going on?”

Patty’s face is grim. “A heard a rumour.”

Erin’s blood runs cold. Was that all a façade back there? Did Holtz and Abby tell everyone about her confession?

Patty shuts the door. “Have you heard what Holtzmann has been doing back there?”

Erin’s freezes in a different way. Should she lie? She told Abby and Holtz that she would keep their secret, but if Patty already knows…

Besides, she trusts Patty.

“Yes,” Erin says quietly. “I’m sorry. I should have put an end to it as soon as I found out.”

“You knew about it and didn’t tell me? Come on, Erin…”

“I’m sorry,” Erin repeats.

Patty shakes her head. “I don’t have time to deal with this. I need you to put an end to it. We are _not_ letting anyone unionize.”

Erin pauses. “Wait, what?”

Patty looks at her. “The engineers are trying to unionize? What’d you think I was talkin’ about?”

“Uhhhhhh…that. Definitely. The engineers trying to unionize.”

“I don’t know for sure that Holtz is behind it, but, well…” Patty gives her a look.

“Yeah, I gotcha,” Erin says.

“Find out what they’re askin’ for. We’ll give ’em whatever they want, but if the CEO catches wind of this, he’ll fire them all before anyone can say the word ‘union.’”

Erin frowns. “That’s illegal.”

“I know that. You know that. It’s the truth, though. I mean it—I’ll do whatever it takes to keep them happy. We just gotta keep the whole thing quiet and not let it escalate. Can you do that?”

“Definitely,” Erin says. “I’ll talk to Holtz.”

 

“Holtz.”

“Yeessss?”

“Take a seat.”

“Am I in trouble?”

Erin doesn’t say anything.

Holtz makes a face as she sits. “Okay, apparently.”

“We heard about the plans.”

“My…evil supervillain plans?”

Erin gives her a look. “Unionization, Holtz, really?”

“Oh, is that what this is about?” Holtz lounges back in her seat with an easy grin. “You’re anti-union, huh?”

Erin shrugs. “Well, aside from the fact that I’m on the management team, I’m mostly just confused. I don’t get it.” She shakes her head. “The engineers are all paid well above market—especially you, I mean, come _on_ —and you have amazing benefits. Phenomenal health and dental plans, five weeks paid vacation, full pensions…”

Holtz nods.

“From what I’ve seen,” Erin continues, “the conditions in the lab are good. Or at least, we haven’t heard any complaints. I also know that the group of you has a good relationship with management. There’s no history of hostility, no fighting, no discontent…as far as I know, this is the first time there’s ever been any hint of unrest among the engineers. So I’ve got to ask…why have you been going around trying to convince everyone to unionize?”

“To see the look on your face,” Holtz says, still grinning.

Erin stares for several long seconds. “What?” she says quietly.

“It was too easy,” Holtz says. “They worship me back there. All it took was a few rousing speeches.”

“To convince them to unionize?”

“Nah, to convince them to mess with you. I’ve had everyone talking about it to spread the rumour and see how long it took to get to you. I’m surprised it took this long—this has been in the works for weeks.”

Erin slumps back in her chair. “So you’re not trying to unionize?”

“Course not. We’re all very happy back there, if you haven’t noticed.”

“Oh, thank god,” Erin says. “Patty said that if the CEO heard, he’d have you all fired.”

Holtz quirks an eyebrow. “Isn’t that super illegal? _Should_ we be joining a union?”

“As a member of management, I’m not able to advise you on the matter,” Erin says.

“S’all good,” Holtz says. “I’m not worried. We’ll never be canned. We’re too important. What’d Patty say? Bet she said she’d do whatever it took to keep us happy, right?”

Erin frowns. “Yeah…she did.”

“See?” Holtz points both thumbs at herself. “Essential personnel right here.”

Erin lets that sink in for a few seconds. “You’re right,” she says slowly.

“Wuh woh, you look like you just had a brainwave.”

“All the employees that are off on mysterious leave…” Erin rolls over to the filing cabinet and unlocks it. “I don’t think any of them were engineers.”

“Well, yeah. Didn’t you hear me say how happy we all are?”

“So you think they’re all off work because they’re unhappy?”

“Sure. Stress leave is a thing, right?”

Erin shakes her head. “There’s no documentation to suggest that they’re medical leaves, and stress leave would fall in that category. Remember? We talked about this in like, my first week here. I said that I’d never seen so many people off on leave with no explanation.”

“Yes, I remember having a conversation where we realized that it’s a confidential matter that I should have no part of,” Holtz says.

“Right,” Erin says, looking down at the filing cabinet. “Here’s the thing, though, I’m not giving you _names_. If I told you that there are people who have been off work for _years_ with no explanation…that’s not that confidential.”

Holtz looks impressed. “Years?”

“Some of them have been off for longer than you’ve worked here,” Erin says. “Which is saying something, because you’ve been here for three of the four years that the place has been open.”

“Sweet,” Holtz says. “Why am _I_ not on paid leave?”

“You have been,” Erin reminds her. “But unless all these missing employees have also been off doing paranormal stakeouts, I don’t think it’s something you should be wishing for.”

“Fair.”

“There has to be some sort of connection,” Erin says. “Something they have in common.”

“You could look at their job descriptions,” Holtz says.

“I guess, but I imagine they’re all extremely out of date and obsolete,” Erin says.

Then she freezes.

Holtz sits up. “What? What’s wrong?”

“I’m so _stupid_ ,” Erin says, turning back to her computer and jiggling the mouse to wake up the screen. “How could I have missed this?”

“Missed what?”

Erin turns back around. “Holtz, what is the _one_ thing I’ve been saying about the job descriptions at this company?”

“They’re out of date?”

“Forget ‘out of date,’ they’re _ancient_. And what about the policies? Do you remember the dress code?”

“How could I forget?” Holtz says with a cheeky smile. “So, everything’s super archaic. Big deal. What am I missing?”

“Holtz,” Erin says slowly, “how old is NorthStar?”

“Four years,” Holtz says immediately, then her face shadows. “Oh boy,” she says quietly.

“Why does a four-year-old company have decades-old policies and job descriptions?” Erin shakes her head at herself. “Seriously, how did I not question this sooner? Half of what I’ve been doing since I got here is updating policies.”

“I’m sure there’s a logical explanation,” Holtz says. “People must steal job descriptions and policies from the internet sometimes, right? Maybe they came from a different company altogether?”

“Sure, that’s not unheard of, but why wouldn’t they steal more modern ones?”

“Good question,” Holtz says.

“Does NorthStar have a parent company?” Erin wonders aloud. “Is it part of a larger conglomerate?”

“Don’t think so,” Holtz says. “But please say that word again.”

“Conglomerate?”

“Love that word.”

“Okay, so, no conglomerate as far as you know. Maybe it was bought-out four years ago, and was actually around for a lot longer under a different name?”

“Nah, I’m like 99% sure it was a start-up. Think you might be barking up the wrong tree, here, Erin. I think I’d have heard of the old company if it was a buy-out.”

“I guess you’re right,” Erin mumbles, looking back at her computer. She wracks her brain, trying to think of any other explanation, and something else jumps into her head. She looks back at Holtz. “Hey, does the name ‘NorthPoint’ mean anything to you?”

“Nope,” Holtz says, popping the P. “I’m pretty sure there are ten thousand companies with that name. Why?”

“When I was talking to Jennifer she asked me if I liked working at NorthPoint. I just took it as a warning sign that she wasn’t supposed to be here.”

“Someone didn’t do her research,” Holtz singsongs. “Or it means something. Didya try Googling it?”

Erin pulls up her browser and types it in.

“14 million results,” she reads.

“Ah, I was wrong,” Holtz says. “Not ten thousand companies: 14 million.”

“Not very helpful,” Erin says, and exits the window.

“Well,” Holtz says, standing from her chair, “I’ve gotta get back to work. Let me know if you have any other revelations, alright? I’ll try to do some investigating. See if anyone in the lab happens to know where any of the missing employees are. I’ll also find out if anyone has a lead on NorthPoint, although I somehow doubt it.”

“And you’ll cool it on the union talk?”

“Oh, right, yeah, the reason you called me in here. For sure. You can tell Patty that you got the situation under control.” Holtz winks.

Erin shakes her head. “Get out of my office.”

“Yes ma’am,” Holtz says, saluting as she opens the door and slides out.

Patty is watching them from her office. Erin makes eye contact with her, does a thumbs up, and mouths _we’re good,_ to which Patty nods and smiles.

Now, if only it were true.

 


	8. Diversions

A few days later, Erin is typing at her desk when Holtz appears out of nowhere and hurriedly shuts the door behind her. She’s carrying a large boombox.

“Hey, Holtz. What—”

Holtz presses play and immediately an 80s song (that Erin recognizes but couldn’t name) begins blasting through the speakers at ear-splitting volume.

Erin’s hands fly off her keyboard to cover her ears. “What the hell?” she shouts over the music.

Holtz sets the boombox down and begins dancing. Erin realizes what’s playing now—it’s ‘Rhythm of the Night.’ It’s shaking the glass walls of the office in a concerning way.

“Holtz!” Erin shouts. “Turn it down!”

Holtz dances her way closer to the desk, mouthing the lyrics. “This is to cover our conversation,” she shouts. “They could be listening.”

“I think we’re drawing more attention to ourselves like this,” Erin shouts.

Everyone in the office is staring at them.

“As far as they know, I’m serenading you,” Holtz shouts back. “That’s what you’re going to tell everyone later.”

Suddenly, she’s in Erin’s personal space, spinning her office chair around and turning to grind against her, turning the performance into a lap dance. Erin’s mouth dries out. “What are you—”

“I have information,” Holtz says, voice much lower now that she’s close enough to be heard over the music.

“There has got to be a better way to have this conversation,” Erin mutters. The music continues to pound. She’s going to have a headache for a week. “What did you find out?”

Holtz turns to face Erin, her back to the office as she rolls her hips and slides a hand inside the front of her overalls.

Erin swallows.

Holtz withdraws her hand and pulls out a slender white envelope, which she discreetly reaches behind Erin with and slides under her keyboard.

“You couldn’t have given me that without all the theatrics?” Erin says.

Holtz smirks at her and continues thrusting like nothing happened. “I have a couple leads on the missing employees, and on ‘NorthPoint.’ You were right; it means something. Don’t let anyone else see that envelope. I risked my life to get that information to you.”

“You risked your life,” Erin says dryly.

Holtz bends down, close enough that Erin can see her chest heaving. She places two fingers under Erin’s chin and tilts it up, a cocky smirk twisting her mouth.

If Erin wasn’t sitting, she’s sure her legs would be giving out.

The office door flies open and Holtz springs back, her hand falling.

“Hate to DeBarge in,” Abby says.

Holtz stops the music with a click and Erin’s ears continue to ring in the resulting silence. “Is that by DeBarge? I thought it was Devo.”

There’s a beat.

“…Anyway, Patty wants to see the two of you in her office.”

“Fantastic,” Holtz says cheerfully. She holds out her hand. “Erin?”

Erin ignores it and gets up herself.

It feels like all eyes in the office are on them as they walk to Patty’s office. When they get there, she’s seated behind her desk with an unimpressed expression.

“Hey, Patty,” Holtz says happily.

“Don’t ‘hey, Patty’ me,” Patty says. “The hell did I just watch? Do y’all have something going on between you that I don’t know about?”

This question is directed exclusively at Erin.

Erin glances at Holtz, who is looking at her with her eyebrows raised expectantly.

“No,” Erin says immediately. “Of course not. What just happened in there took me completely by surprise and was _incredibly_ inappropriate.” She looks back at Holtz, who nods ever-so-slightly, and takes that as a sign to continue. “I warned you, Dr. Holtzmann. All this peacocking and _serenading_ and acting out just to get my attention is unacceptable. This is a _workplace_ and I have given you more than enough strikes. I have no choice but to file an official sexual harassment report.”

Holtz bows her head. “I understand. I’m very sorry, Erin. You’re right; my behaviour has been unacceptable. I hope you can forgive me. I’ll never bother you again.” She lifts her head, just enough for Erin to catch the lightning-fast wink.

“I should hope so,” Patty says grouchily. “Now you’ve made Patty mad. You know how hard that is?”

“I’m very sorry, Patty,” Holtz says. “I didn’t mean to let you down.”

Patty sighs. “Get back to the lab. Tell Gorin that I need to meet with her later.”

“You got it,” Holtz says. She leaves without her trademarked salute, which really shows how serious she’s being.

Erin goes to follow her, but Patty clears her throat.

“A word, Erin?”

Erin slink back into the office. “Yes?”

“I’m really sorry,” Patty says. “She likes to mess with people but doesn’t know where the line is. You okay?”

“Yeah,” Erin says quickly. “I’m okay.”

Patty presses her lips together. “Bring the harassment report to me when you’re done, and I’ll review it with Dr. Gorin and decide on how much discipline the situation calls for. We’ll suspend her if we have to.”

“Oh, I’m sure that’s not…necessary,” Erin mumbles. “It wasn’t that big of a deal—I mean, it was, I take harassment very seriously and I’m glad you do too—but I think her intentions were harmless. She was just joking around. Having a slap on the wrists and an official written warning in her file might be enough to set her straight.”

“Well, as HR, we’ll consult you before we do anything,” Patty says. “I’m not letting this time slide, though. She crossed a line and it’s about time she’s held accountable for her actions around here.”

“Good, good,” Erin says. “She should be.” She backs up towards the door again. “I should go…write that report.”

“Thanks, Erin,” Patty says with a meager smile.

Most people seem to have gone back to work and don’t pay any attention to her as she leaves the office. She glances around for Holtz, but the engineer has disappeared. She’s probably back in the lab by now.

Then she hears a throat clear behind her and turns to see a flash of blonde hair by the entrance to the breakroom.

Casually, she walks over there and enters to see Holtz standing at the counter in front of the coffee machine. There’s nobody else in the room.

“Ah, hello, Erin,” she says loudly. “Coffee?”

“I actually came to get a cup of tea,” Erin says at the same volume. She grabs the electric kettle and flips the top, then turns the sink on.

“We spend too much time talking in your office,” Holtz says over the rush of the tap. “People have started to notice.”

“So all of that was—”

“A way to throw people off our trail. Now everyone knows it’s because of my unrequited crush.”

Erin finishes filling up the kettle and swallows. “Right.”

She sets the kettle on its base and flicks the switch. Holtz opens the cupboard above her and selects a mug for herself, then picks out another mug and tosses it to Erin, who snags it out of the air before it can fall and shatter. She turns it over in her hands and reads the design on it. A tiny rocket sits beside the words _I need some space_ , surrounded by a multitude of stars. She smiles to herself.

“This is Abby’s,” she says confidently.

Holtz smiles too. “How’d you know?”

“Because I gave it to her,” Erin says. “Back in college.”

Holtz breaks into a full grin. “No shit?”

Another employee walks in to the room suddenly. Erin quickly turns to face the kettle and grabs a tea bag out of the drawer. On the other side of the sink, Holtz fills her own mug with coffee.

Erin doesn’t realize she’s holding her breath until the employee throws something out into the garbage and leaves again, and she exhales.

She grips the edge of the counter with both hands. “Is this what it’s going to be like now?” she asks quietly.

There’s a pause and a slurp as Holtz takes a sip of her coffee. Erin glances sideways at her.

“Not forever,” Holtz says. “We just need to lie low for a bit. You’ll file your report, Patty will keep an eye on us for a while, and then we can get back to normal. In the meantime, we need to be careful about how and when we discuss…everything.”

Erin picks up the bubbling kettle after the switch flicks off and fills the mug. “We could just meet up outside of work to talk.”

Silence. Erin looks over to see a grin as wide as can be stretching across Holtz’s face.

“Stop that,” she scolds. “I just meant—”

“I know what you meant,” Holtz says gleefully.

Erin picks up her mug and bobs the teabag. “I should get back to my office before anyone gets suspicious. I have some…reading to do.”

Holtz nods once. “That you do.”

Erin crosses the room to throw the teabag out. When she turns around, Holtz is leaning against the counter, holding her mug with both hands.

“Hey, Erin?” Holtz takes a sip of coffee, then lowers her mug. “Just out of curiosity…what’s NorthStar’s policy on office relationships?”

Erin hesitates. She licks her lips. “There isn’t one.”

“Interesting. Maybe you should write one.”

“Maybe I should,” Erin whispers.

Holtz lifts her mug in a toast. Erin dips her head and walks quickly from the breakroom, tea threatening to splash up over the edges of Abby’s mug as she hurries back to her office.

Once there, she sets her tea down on a makeshift Post-It coaster by her computer, looks over her shoulder to see if anyone’s watching, and then lifts her keyboard to pull the envelope out from underneath it.

“Okay, Holtz,” she mutters to herself. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

 


	9. Warnings

Erin slides a stack of papers out from the envelope and unfolds them. The page on top looks like it was torn from a notebook and is covered in scrawled, nearly illegible writing. Erin scans it over and decides it’s going to take a more careful eye, so she shuffles it to the back of the pile for later.

The next page looks to be a printout from Google Maps satellite view. Erin can’t make out much, just a wooded area and a dark rectangle, presumably a building. It’s hard to tell how big it is. In the white space on the page, there’s an address in Maine penned in the same scribble as the notebook page, along with the word _NorthEast._

Erin frowns and moves to the next sheet, which is blank except for a URL and a scratched note to _look up on computer at home_.

The next page appears to be a photocopy of a newspaper article from 2002, for a small newspaper from Boston.

_CEO Jailed, Hundreds Laid Off in Nuclear Power Plant Shut-Down_

_Employees of TrueNorth Nuclear Power Plant were shocked and confused to arrive at work on Tuesday morning to find notices of plant closure taped to the locked doors._

_“It was completely unexpected,” commented one employee, who has been working at TrueNorth for two years. “We had no idea we were out of jobs until we showed up.”_

_TrueNorth CEO, Ann Thorrow, was arrested late Monday night for over a dozen charges, including fraud, bribery, and involuntary manslaughter. Her arrest follows a year-long investigation of the sudden death of an employee at the plant in February 2001, which was found to be the result of extreme health and safety negligence on the part of management. During the investigation, Thorrow allegedly attempted to bribe multiple health and safety officers in an effort to hide the findings._

Erin skims the rest of the article and stares at the grainy mugshot of an older brunette woman with thin glasses. There’s something unsettling in her eyes. It’s freaking Erin out, so she moves the page to the bottom of the stack.

She’s back at the notebook page. She can make out a few phrases. There’s a name that she recognizes—Lori Neilson. That’s one of the employees who’s off on leave. Underneath her name, it says ‘hasn’t been the same since.’

In the top right corner of the page, there’s a phone number. Erin stares at it for a minute, then reaches for her cell phone. She doesn’t trust her office phone.

It only rings for a second, then clicks.

“ _Go for Holtzmann_.”

Erin frowns. “Holtz?”

_“Erin?”_

Erin looks at her phone, then puts it back to her ear. “I thought this was a lead.”

_“Then why’d you phone it at work? What part of ‘they could be listening’ don’t you understand?”_

“I’m on my cell though, so they can’t listen in on the line.”

_“Your office could still be bugged.”_

Erin huffs. “Why did you write your own phone number on this?”

She can hear the smile in Holtz’s voice. _“I wanted you to have it.”_

Erin blushes. “Could’ve just given it to me.”

Holtz chuckles. “ _I gotta get back to work. Gorin’s giving me the stink-eye. Next time, text, alright?”_

“Yeah, yeah,” Erin says, and hangs up.

She saves the number in her contacts and then immediately starts a new message.

_We should get coffee after work and discuss your findings._

A few seconds later, her phone vibrates.

_Jillian Holtzmann: I’d love to ;)_

_Jillian Holtzmann: But_

_Jillian Holtzmann: Abby and I got a tip about a weeping wall that we need to check out today_

Erin bites her lip.

_Oh. Don’t worry about it. Maybe tomorrow?_

_Jillian Holtzmann: Or u could come with us :)_

Nearly a minute goes by before Erin responds, chewing a hole in her lip anxiously as she types.

_Okay. I will._

_Jillian Holtzmann: Sweeeeet! We’re meeting at 7:30. I’ll text the address_

And just like that, Erin has committed to participating in paranormal research again.

She feels like she’s going to regret this.

 

Erin spends about half an hour writing out the sexual harassment report about the lap dance incident earlier, and then takes it to Patty.

“Thanks, Erin,” Patty says as she looks it over. “You got a minute? Let me see if Dr. Gorin is around.”

Erin takes an awkward seat while Patty gets on the phone. Her conversation is short, clipped, and when she hangs up she says that Dr. Gorin will be there in a minute.

When Dr. Gorin arrives, she looks furious.

She shuts the door and crosses her arms. “What is the meaning of this?”

Patty stands and holds out the report. “There was an incident earlier.”

Dr. Gorin crosses the office and snatches it. She doesn’t look at it. “I am aware. Jillian told me.”

Jillian. That’s new.

“We think there needs to be consequences,” Patty says.

“I do my own disciplining, thank you,” Dr. Gorin says tightly.

Patty crosses her arms. “So you took care of it already?”

“I hardly see why the event required a sexual harassment report at all, Patricia.”

“Erin? Wanna walk her through what happened?”

“I, uh,” Erin stammers. “She…gave me a very public lap dance.”

Dr. Gorin turns to look down at her, her gaze icy and measured. “Did you put an immediate end to the display?”

Erin colours. “Not…immediately.”

Dr. Gorin looks back at Patty. “I am not discipling Jillian.”

“Hey, what are you suggesting?” Patty lifts her chin. “You think it wasn’t harassment, just because Erin didn’t stop it right away? You think she wanted it to happen? C’mon, Rebecca, not cool. Holtz has been harassing Erin since she got here.”

“And you have done nothing to stop it?”

Erin and Patty fall silent.

“Patricia, you know that I have zero tolerance for true sexual harassment in my lab. I have fired employees for such behaviour.” She looks at Erin. “It is my understanding that you and Jillian have become rather close. Let’s call this incident what it is—”

Erin freezes.

“—an inappropriate joke between friends,” Dr. Gorin finishes.

“Kay, well, that ‘joke’ embarrassed Erin and disrupted the whole office,” Patty says. “We can’t just let this slide.”

“I gave her multiple verbal warnings about her behaviour in the past,” Erin says quietly. “If we follow the progressive discipline model, she just needs to get a formal written warning. That’s all I’m asking for.”

Dr. Gorin rolls her eyes and shakes her head.

Patty glances at the door and then lowers her voice. “I can make sure he doesn’t find out about it.”

Dr. Gorin presses her lips together. “Fine,” she says after a hefty pause. She drops the report onto Erin’s lap like it’s garbage. “I’m going back to work,” she snaps, giving each of them one last glare before she makes a swift exit.

“Sorry about that,” Patty says with a sigh once Dr. Gorin is halfway back to the lab. “She can be a little…” She makes an expression that pretty much sums it up.

“What did you mean before?” Erin can’t help but ask. “Who are you making sure doesn’t find out?”

Patty looks over Erin’s shoulder before answering. “S’nothing. Just…the CEO.”

Erin frowns. “Why can’t he know that we’re disciplining Holtz? Is it because of the whole 'hand-picked from CERN' connection?”

“Something like that,” Patty mutters.

Erin senses there’s more to the story, but she doesn’t push. She also feels weirdly unsettled by the whole exchange with Dr. Gorin. Erin doesn’t understand why she was fighting the matter so hard. It’s just a stupid written warning.

There’s something about her. Erin doesn’t know if she trusts her. What if she’s connected to everything that’s going on?

“Well, thanks for going to bat for me,” she says hesitantly as she stands. “I appreciate it.”

“Course,” Patty says. “I’ll do up that written warning and send it to Holtzmann, and then you can make sure it gets filed in her personnel file. Sound good?”

“Sounds good,” Erin says with a nod. She gives the report back to Patty and then backs up towards the door. “I’ll let you get to it.”

“Thanks, Erin,” Patty says distractedly, already back at her computer.

 

Erin doesn’t see Holtz—or Abby—for the rest of the day. She supposes this is how it’s meant to be—their job is to work in the lab, after all. She’ll just have to wait until tonight, at the stakeout, to see them.

At the end of the day, she shuts down her computer and packs up, discretely grabbing the envelope that Holtz gave her.

Outside, she walks briskly towards the subway, hurrying to get out of the cold.

A man sidles up to her.

“Keep walking, Erin,” he says pleasantly.

Her heart stops.

“How—how do you know my name?”

“Oh, I know much more than your name,” he says.

She glances sideways at him, trying to memorize as many details about his appearance as possible so she could describe him to the police. He’s in his late sixties. He has round, purple-framed glasses. He’s wearing a cream-coloured hat and carrying a walking stick. He has what looks like a spiderweb-shaped brooch pinned to the lapel of his tweed suit.

“Who are you?” she says shakily.

“That’s not important,” he says.

“Why are you following me?” She holds her briefcase close to her body. “Do you want money? Are you going to hurt me?”

He laughs in a fake way. “I’m only here to have a little chat, Erin. Is this not a good time?”

She stops in the middle of the sidewalk.

“Ah, ah.” He wags a finger. “I said to keep walking.”

For a fleeting second, she debates the merits of running. She’s not very fast, but he doesn’t look like he could match her, not with the way he’s leaning on that cane.

“If you run, I’ll have no trouble finding you again,” he says, reading her mind. “I have all the time in the world. Shall we?”

She swallows and starts walking again.

“What do you want?” She tries to sound tough, threatening, but she’s not sure it comes across.

He’s as calm as ever. “You look stressed, Erin. Have you been sleeping?”

“Why do you care?”

“I’m just concerned about you,” he says. “The stress of the job seems like it’s getting to you.”

She slows. “You know where I work?”

He chuckles. “Erin Gilbert. I know things about you that you don’t know about yourself.”

She can feel herself shaking. “I don’t know what that means. Why do you care if I’m stressed?”

“Have you considered taking some time off work?”

She stops walking. He opens his mouth to reprimand her, but she picks up again before he can say anything. “Why would I do that?” she says quietly, heart pounding in her ears.

“This much stress isn’t good for you,” he says. “I would hate for something to…happen to you.”

In her pocket, her fingers close around her phone. “Is that a threat?”

“Why, of course not,” he says smoothly. “I just think that you know better than anyone what can happen if you’re pushed to your breaking point. Or have you forgotten?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she says quietly.

“No? Well. I just think,” he says, voice measured, “that if I were you, I would be very _careful_ about what you do next.”

He circles her, cutting her off, and leans in.

“The envelope, Erin, if you would?”

She shrinks back. “I don’t—”

He holds out his hand.

Still shaking, she undoes her briefcase, pulls out the envelope, and hands it to him. He slides it inside his suit jacket and dips his head.

“That wasn’t so difficult, was it? Now—” He waves his hand at her— “skedaddle on home and think about what I said. I trust that you’ll make the decision that is…in your best interest.” He smiles sinisterly. “Good day, Erin Gilbert.”

He pushes past her and walks in the direction they came.

She wastes no time, immediately taking off again at a near-run, checking over her shoulder every few feet to make sure he isn’t following her, even though she’s almost positive that he knows where she lives.

It isn’t until she’s on her train and the doors have safely closed behind her that she subtly reaches her hand into her own jacket to feel the smooth edges of the envelope from Holtz.

Still, her heartbeat doesn’t slow down for a long, long time.

 


	10. Puzzles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I stayed up far too late finishing this chapter considering I was up at 4:30am last night driving my mom to the airport and then I went into the office and worked seven hours despite it being Sunday. And now it's 11:15pm and I have to work tomorrow yikes. Hope you like it? I'm gonna go pass out now

Once Erin gets to her apartment, she locks the door and sits on the couch, flinching every time there’s a noise outside.

She texts Holtz.

_I can’t make it tonight after all._

Holtz responds immediately, asking why, but Erin doesn’t answer.

She sets the envelope on her coffee table and doesn’t take her eyes off it.

Of course she didn’t put it in her briefcase—with Hawkins and Rorke still doing bag-searches every time they come and go, she couldn’t risk them opening it.

She hopes that man, whoever he is, enjoys reading her power bill.

She figures its only a matter of time before he’ll realize what she did and find her again. Before that happens, she needs to figure out exactly what the information in the envelope means.

She slides the papers out again and makes copies of them with her scanner. She locks the copies in her safe with her passport and other important documents, then returns to the originals.

She starts with the URL, typing it out meticulously into her search bar, making sure that every last number and slash is accounted for before she hits enter.

It redirects to a video hosting site, which has so many pop-ups that Erin is sure to get a virus. When she finally gets rid of all of them, she clicks play on the video that’s loaded.

It’s a news clip, she realizes immediately, from a small local station—she’s not sure what region of the country.

A reporter is standing in a field. Behind her in the distance, thick plumes of black smoke rise into the sky.

_“Our top story tonight is the fire at the commercial property previously owned by NorthPoint Nuclear.”_

Erin sits up straighter in interest.

“ _As you can see, firefighters on scene are struggling to contain the blaze, which erupted about an hour ago. The building has been unoccupied since the company’s abrupt closure two weeks ago, an event that sent shockwaves through the community and cost hundreds their jobs. Some have been quick to speculate that the fire may have been set deliberately by a disgruntled employee impacted by the layoffs, but the cause of the fire has yet to be identified.”_

The clip cuts off.

She immediately Googles the news station and finds out that it’s based out of Oregon.

With that information, she searches _NorthPoint Nuclear Oregon_ to see if she can find out any else.

Nothing. She can’t even find the news clip, so she has no clue how Holtz managed to come across it.

She spreads out the rest of the papers on her coffee table and looks them over again.

Her phone vibrates and lights up with a text.

_Jillian Holtzmann: Weeping wall tip turned out to be a joke so it’s probably good that you bailed_

_Jillian Holtzmann: Hope everything’s okay_

_Jillian Holtzmann: We could still get that coffee if you want?_

Erin thumbs through the texts and swallows.

_I can’t._

Holtz responds instantly.

_Jillian Holtzmann: Why not?_

Erin bites her lip.

_It’s too dangerous._

A few seconds pass, then her phone starts ringing. She stares at Holtz’s name for a few seconds, then swipes to answer.

“Hello?”

“ _Why would it be dangerous?”_

Erin closes her eyes. “It just would.”

“ _Dangerous for the investigation, or dangerous…for other reasons?”_

Erin’s heart thumps. “What?”

“ _Just…y’know. If people knew we were spending time outside of work together…”_

“I’m not worried about that,” Erin says quickly.

“ _Oh._ ” There’s a beat. _“So what’s the problem?”_

Erin clenches her jaw and glances at her apartment door. “I don’t know if I can tell you. It might not be safe.”

Silence. “ _Did something happen?”_

Erin hesitates.

“ _Please tell me.”_

“It’s nothing,” Erin says. “Just…um…I think I was threatened by the CEO on my way home from work?”

Silence.

“ _What’s your address? We’re on our way.”_

 

After peeking through the peephole and seeing Holtz and Abby’s distorted forms in the hallway, Erin carefully unlocks her door and opens it.

“Quickly,” she says, ushering them inside and locking the door again behind them.

“Damn, you live here?” Holtz whistles as she kicks off her boots. “How much do HR professionals make?”

Abby elbows her.

“Right,” Holtz says. “Your life might be in danger.” She peers past Erin at the living area. “Seriously though, this place is huge.”

“What happened?” Abby says.

“Also, how much is your rent?”

“Can we please focus?” Erin begs.

“Absolutely. This is serious.” Holtz strides into the kitchen and opens a random cupboard. “What do you have in the way of snacks?”

“Holtzmann.”

“Alriiight.” Holtz leans on the counter. “Please tell us what happened. Spare no detail.”

Erin rolls her shoulders back. “I had just left work and I was walking when this man came out of nowhere and started walking alongside me. He told me to keep walking and said he just wanted to talk to me.”

“Already terrifying,” Holtz says. “I would’ve soiled myself. Continue.”

“He knew my name and said that he knew everything about me. He kept rambling about how stressed I looked. And then he…asked if I’d thought about going on leave. He said I should consider it because he would hate for something to happen to me.”

“Sounds considerate,” Abby comments.

“Yeah, but he said it like this. ‘I’d hate for something to…happen to you.’”

“Ooh, the ominous pause.”

“Yep. You’re gonna die,” Holtz confirms.

“That doesn’t make me feel any better!”

Abby flops onto the couch. “Why do you think it was the CEO?”

“Just a feeling I got. What does he look like, Holtz? By the way, I think there’s a bag of beet chips in the cupboard closest to the fridge.”

“I’d rather die,” Holtz says. “And I dunno, I’ve never met the guy.”

Erin falters. “Wait, what?”

“They’re not chips, Erin, they’re just vegetables pretending to be snack food.”

“No, I meant—you haven’t met the CEO? But…he hand-picked you from CERN, didn’t he?”

Holtz shrugs. “Yeah? As far as I know, he just gave my name to Patty and Gorin. They’re the ones who contacted me.”

Erin looks back and forth between Abby and Holtz. “So neither of you have met him? What’s his name?”

“No clue,” Abby says.

Holtz shakes her head as well.

Erin considers that. “Has _anyone_ met him?”

“Patty talks to him all the time,” Holtz says. “She’d know. We could call her.”

Erin recoils. “Call Patty? Now?”

“Yeah. I’ve got her cell,” Holtz says. “She loves me. We go out drinking all the time.”

“As your HR Manager, I’m going to pretend that I didn’t hear that.” Erin waves her hand. “Sure, fine, try calling Patty. I doubt she’ll tell us. Just make sure you don’t tell her what happened to me.”

“You got it,” Holtz says. She dials, turns it on speakerphone, and sets her phone on the counter. “Don’t know why you wanna keep it from her. Patty’s cool.”

“ _Hey.”_ There’s a din in the background, like maybe Patty’s at a bar or an event of some sorts.

Holtz leans down on the counter with both elbows. “Hey, Patty, you’re on speaker with Erin and Abby.”

There’s a pause. “ _Okay?”_

“Could you tell us what the name of our CEO is?”

Another pause. “ _Why?”_

“I’m writing a book report,” Holtz says.

“ _Try again.”_

“It’s to settle a bet,” Holtz says smoothly.

Patty sighs. “ _Fine. It’s Ron.”_

“Wow, we were all _way_ off,” Holtz says, shooting a wink at Erin.

Erin blushes and clears her throat. “Ron what? One of us could have still got the last name right.”

“ _I really shouldn’t tell you.”_

“Come on, Patty,” Holtz lilts, “you can trust us. It won’t leave this room.”

Patty snorts. “ _It better not. It’s Wharton.”_

“That’s close to what I had,” Erin says. “How’s that spelled?”

“ _W-H-A-R-T-O-N.”_

“Shoot, that’s not what I had.”

“How would you describe him?” Abby says. “I said big, muscular, with a thick beard and a fisherman’s attitude. And Erin, what did you say?” She lifts her eyebrows.

Erin straightens. “Yeah, um, I thought…late sixties, fancy dresser, glasses…”

“My money’s on a hundred-year-old Asian woman who walks around with a cat on her shoulder.”

Both Erin and Abby give Holtz a look.

Patty laughs. “ _I love you. Never change. Y’all have got it all wrong. He’s young, mid-twenties. Skinny white guy. Came from family money so he’s got the whole entitled thing down. Like nobody’s ever told him no, right?”_

Patty laughs again, and Erin gets the feeling like she might be drunk.

_“Man, sometimes he’s like a robot—or no, an alien—like he has no clue what the real world is like. It’s hilarious.”_ There’s some muffled noise on the other end, shouting and then Patty’s voice sounds distant like she’s attempting to cover the phone. “ _Ey, watch it—well fuck you too, man.”_

Erin raises her eyebrows. Holtz is smirking.

“ _Sorry ’bout that,”_ Patty says louder. “ _This asshole just walked right into me and spilled my drink everywhere. Listen, I gotta go. I’m gonna pretend like I don’t know y’all are gettin’ up to something. Have a good night.”_

“Thanks Pattyyyy. Love you,” Holtz says.

“Bye Patty,” Erin and Abby chorus.

“ _Love you too,”_ Patty says, and then the phone clicks.

“See?” Holtz pockets her phone again. “Told ya Patty would help us.”

Erin sits down on the couch beside Abby and writes the CEO’s name on the page of notes.

“So, mystery guy wasn’t the CEO,” Abby says. “Unless Patty was lying about what he looks like.”

“That’s not Patty,” Holtz says with a shake of her head. “I’d trust her with my life. She wouldn’t lie to us.”

“What if it was to protect herself?” Erin counters. “Or to protect us?”

“She’s more likely to be honest,” Holtz says firmly. “She wants to figure out what’s going on just as much as we do.”

Erin thinks back to her conversations with Patty about the weird stuff going on. The moment they shared when they got the phone call from Brawny’s number. The way she was willing to hide Holtz’s discipline from the CEO to protect them.

“Okay,” she says with a nod. “Let’s say she’s telling the truth and that’s what the CEO looks like. Who the hell did I see, then?” She gestures to the papers strewn across the coffee table. “And how does it fit into all this?”

Holtz comes and takes a seat beside Erin on the arm of the couch. “Did you look this stuff up?”

“I tried,” Erin says, frustration colouring her voice. “I had no idea what to do with some of it though or what to make of it all.”

Holtz takes the paper with the Google Maps printout. “Well, did you piece together that there are records of four nuclear research companies with similar names?” She wiggles four fingers at them and then counts them off. “NorthStar. NorthPoint. NorthEast. TrueNorth.”

Erin tilts her head. “So you’re saying it _is_ a conglomerate?”

Holtz wags the one finger that’s still raised. “Nuh uh. Not a conglomerate. A _continuation.”_

Erin shakes her head. “Not following you.”

Holtz reaches for the page with the newspaper article and holds it up so they can see. “TrueNorth Nuclear Power Plant. Opens in Boston in ’99. Shuts down in 2002 after the CEO is arrested for some shady business practices and even shadier safety practices.” She swaps out the pages so the Google Maps one is on top. “2003. NorthEast Nuclear Solutions opens in a small community in Maine. A quiet investigation finds that it’s a major environmental hazard. Before it can be resolved, the CEO mysteriously vanishes. The whole warehouse is condemned and shut down in 2006.” She taps the blurry rectangular building. “This is the closest anyone can get now.”

Erin frowns.

Holtz stands up from the couch, really getting into her speech now.

“2007. NorthPoint Nuclear opens in Oregon.” She pauses for emphasis. “Are you paying attention to this timeline?”

“They all opened and closed consecutively,” Erin murmurs. “Always opening a year after the last one closed.”

Holtz nods. “And what did you find out about NorthPoint? Did you watch the video?”

“It shut down abruptly,” Erin says, swallowing. “Then the building burned down a few weeks later. They thought maybe it was arson.”

“It was arson,” Holtz says confidently. “Guess who they convicted?”

“A disgruntled employee?” Erin guesses.

Holtz shakes her head. “Better. _The CEO._ ”

Erin just blinks. “Seriously?”

“Yep. There was tons of evidence at the scene of the crime to prove it was her. Plus, she was the only one with access after it was shut down, and the fire originated in three different spots, all inside the building.”

“How did you find out all this?” Erin looks over the remaining pages on the coffee table. “I tried searching for more information and couldn’t find anything at all.”

Holtz taps her temple. “I have a source on the inside.”

Abby doesn’t look up from reading the page of notes. “One of your dealers?”

Erin balks.

Holtz notices her expression. “Of the black-market parts and illegal matter variety, not the drug variety.”

Like that’s supposed to console Erin.

“Nah,” Holtz continues, “although I did get some good tips from Freddie. He knew a guy who used to supply for NorthEast back when it was open. Goes to show how sketchy it was. Anyway, one of the engineers—you know Tank?”

Abby looks up. “Yeah?”

“Trevor Elms,” Holtz explains to Erin. “You’ve probably seen him around? Built like a tank. Worked for the military before this.”

“I remember seeing his name in the filing cabinet,” Erin confirms.

“Right. Well, turns out he used to have a secret thing with Lori Neilson from Finance.”

Erin’s eyes flick to the notepad sheet in Abby’s hands, with the phrase ‘hasn’t been the same since’ under Lori’s name.

Abby must see it too. “What’s the deal with her? Does he know where she went?”

“Well, we got to talking,” Holtz says, “and he said that he knew her before she left. They both started here right after the place opened. Long before I was hired. About six months after they started, Lori disappeared suddenly. The only explanation he got was that she was on leave.”

Erin sits forward. “Has he seen her since?”

“Yep. He went over to her apartment to see her. He said she was acting really weird. She barely had anything to say to him and she was all cold and distant even though they were supposedly dating. She told him to leave and never come back.”

Abby sets the page of notes down. “Did he?”

“Yeah. He phoned a few times after that and she always sounded the same. Not herself.”

“Hasn’t been the same since,” Erin mumbles absentmindedly.

“Get this, though—that’s not why we started talking about her. He heard that I was asking around about NorthPoint and he approached me. He’d heard of it. You know why?”

“Lori,” Abby says quietly.

Holtz points. “Bingo. She used to work there.”

Erin blinks. “Really?”

“Yeah. I guess after the shutdown and fire in—surprise surprise, 2011—she was out of a job and happened to move to New York in search of work. When NorthStar opened up the next year, she applied and was hired. She kept pretty quiet about it though. I guess they made them sign some sort of disclosure that they wouldn’t talk about the company after it shut down.”

“So how did Tank find out?” Abby asks.

“True love got in the way, I guess,” Holtz says. “She told him all about it one night—the company, their research, the fire, the scandal with the CEO…” Holtz steps closure and lowers her voice. “And then…the next day is the day she disappeared.”

Abby sits back against the couch with a heavy exhale. “Shit.”

Holtz presses her lips together. “Yeah.”

They both look to Erin with grim expressions.

Erin’s heartbeat quickens. “You think the same thing is going to happen to me?”

They exchange a glance.

“I think we should keep our eyes open,” Abby says. “It could happen to any of us. We know too much now. We’re onto something much bigger here.”

“But what does it all _mean?_ ” Erin’s voice cracks on the word.

“It means our job security isn’t lookin’ too hot right now,” Holtz jokes, but her voice is grim. “It’s only a matter of time before NorthStar shuts down and ole Ronnie boy is carted off to prison for something unsavoury.”

Abby rolls her eyes. “Patty says he’s a rich white man. Prison seems unlikely.”

Erin tugs over the paper with his name written down on it. “What ever happened to the missing CEO? From NorthEast?”

“I did some digging on the deep internet,” Holtz says. “They found him trying to flee the country, arrested him, sentenced him on multiple charges. He’s still in prison.”

Erin runs her thumb over NorthStar’s CEO’s name. “What was the name of the CEO at the first one, again? The one from that newspaper article? The one who tried to bribe health and safety officials?”

Holtz flips over the page in her hand. “Uhhh…Ann. Ann Thorrow.”

“Was she found guilty?”

“Dunno,” Holtz says. “Can I borrow your computer?”

Erin opens her laptop and logs in, then passes it to Holtz, who sits cross-legged on the floor with it.

It only takes about thirty seconds of clicking, and then Holtz lifts her head. “Yep. Guilty on all counts. She’s still in prison, too.”

Erin writes down her name below Ron’s, then stares at them for a few seconds.

“Did it mention the name of the NorthEast CEO?” she asks slowly. “The one who fled the country?”

“Uhh, yeah, I think so. Hold on, let me pull it up.”

Another minute of keyboard clicks.

“Norton Wahr. W-A-H-R,” Holtz announces.

Erin’s brow furrows and she writes it down. “And the CEO of NorthPoint? The arsonist?”

Abby holds out her phone, which she’s been typing on. “I got it already. Nora N. W. Roth.”

Erin writes it down, then slowly looks up at them with wide eyes, turning the paper so they can see.

“These are all anagrams,” she says. “Ann Thorrow. Norton Wahr. Nora N. W. Roth. Ron Wharton. They all have the same letters.”

Holtz sits up eagerly on her knees. “Is this a Tom Riddle situation? Do we have an evil supervillain on our hands?”

“Bet it’ll be a message if it’s unscrambled,” Abby says. She leans over, eyes flitting over the names. “Horn now, rat.”

Holtz is tracing letters in the air. “Hot nor warn.”

“No raw thorn,” Abby says.

“HR noon wart,” Holtz says with a wink at Erin.

“The word ‘north’ is in here,” Erin says. “That has to be part of it. What about ‘no north war?’ You said you guys are developing weapons, right? Have you ever heard anything about a north war?”

“No,” Abby says, “but that sounds the most plausible out of any of these.”

“Rowan North,” Holtz says quietly.

Erin looks up to see that she’s sitting back down, laptop on her lap again. “What?”

“Rowan North,” Holtz repeats. “His name is in one of these articles.”

Erin and Abby glance at each other.

“North is a last name,” Erin says in realization. “He must be the one behind all these companies. They’re named after him! I bet if we can find him, we can find out what he’s up to!”

“And put a stop to it before the company implodes like the rest,” Abby says eagerly.

“Can you find out anything about him?” Erin asks Holtz. “Like where we could find him?”

“580 Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge, Massachusetts,” Holtz announces.

Erin blinks. “Oh, wow. I didn’t expect that to be that easy.”

Holtz makes a face. “Welllll…there might be a little hiccup.” She turns the laptop screen towards them, exposing a large green area in Google Maps.

“Mount Auburn Cemetery,” Erin reads, then her heart sinks.

“He’s been dead for 15 years,” Holtz says.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who called it? I know some of you did ;)


	11. Questions

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is like the shortest chapter ever but I'm just trying to get back in the swing of this fic after focusing on and finishing 'here's to my yesterday' over the past little while! I'm doing NaNoWriMo right now and the plan is to finish this fic as part of it, so stay tuned for more very soon

There are a few seconds of silence after Holtz’s announcement, and then Abby's face lights up.

“Yes! Dead for fifteen years! Rowan's a ghost!”

Erin eyes her. “What? You're not serious.” What kind of reaction is that?

“Come on, it all makes sense,” Abby says. “Where did you read his name, Holtz?”

Holtz clicks over to another open tab. “ _Ann Thorrow plead guilty last week to the involuntary manslaughter of TrueNorth employee Rowan North, who was killed in February of 2001 while on duty at the nuclear power plant. His tragic death sparked investigation and was found to be a result of gross negligence and lack of safety precautions,”_ she reads. “He was the employee who died at the first company.”

Erin shakes her head. “This doesn’t make sense. He _has_ to be involved more than that. His name is a perfect anagram of every single CEO that’s gone down for these companies. His last name is North. He’s got to be behind all this. He can’t just be _dead._ ”

“He’s a ghost,” Abby repeats.

“Don’t be crazy,” Erin mutters.

Abby and Holtz stare at her.

“Why’s that crazy?” Abby says.

“Because…because…you know,” Erin says.

Abby crosses her arms. “No. I don’t know. Say it.”

“It’s not possible,” Erin whispers.

Abby slouches back. “I can’t believe this. You’re still trying to pretend that they don’t exist, even though you _know_ that they do. Come on, Erin. I thought you this crap was behind you.”

“That’s not—”

“Yeah. That’s exactly what you’re saying. You don’t think it’s possible because you don’t want to admit that ghosts are real and that we could be dealing with one, even though all the signs are pointing to it.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“So admit it, then. Admit that this is the most plausible explanation. We already know he’s dead. He _has_ to be a ghost.”

Erin bites her lip. “That’s not the only explanation. He could’ve faked his own death. He could still be out there. Or he _is_ dead and gone. Maybe he was never the one behind it. Maybe he was just another anagram. Maybe someone else is responsible and he was just a casualty in their plan. Maybe it’s that man who stopped me earlier today.”

“But he doesn’t fit the pattern,” Holtz says quietly. “The rest of them were all CEOs. He was just an employee at the company. You’re right, though, he could’ve faked his own death. We don’t know for sure that he’s dead, just because this says he is.”

“Fine,” Abby says. “I’ll give you that. It’s…another possibility. I really think we’re dealing with something paranormal here, though. I mean, come on, NorthStar is _full_ of weird energy. We already know that something is going on, and we have suspicions that it’s haunted. Why couldn’t it be haunted by him?”

“Okay. Say he is…a ghost.” Erin stumbles over the word. “It still doesn’t make sense. What was he up to before he died? Was he the one who created TrueNorth? Why wasn’t _he_ the CEO? Did he create the other companies, too? How could he have done that if he’s dead, even if he _is_ still out there as a ghost? How do the CEO’s and their names fit into all this? Are they all aliases? Were they all a part of it, like a…crime ring of some sort? A gigantic conspiracy? Or did they have no idea what was going on?”

Abby and Holtz look equally as perplexed. No part of this is adding up.

Erin sighs. “And what about—”

There’s a knock on the door.

All three of them freeze.

“Hide everything,” Erin hisses a second later.

They all scramble. Holtz closes the websites and shuts the laptop. Erin and Abby gather up the papers as fast as they can and shove them under the couch cushions. Erin has half a mind to tell Abby and Holtz to hide too, but if that’s the man from earlier, she wants witnesses.

A louder knock.

“Don’t answer,” Holtz whispers.

“I have to see who it is,” Erin chokes out. She’s shaking as she walks slowly towards the door. What is she supposed to do if it’s him? She can’t hide in her apartment forever and there’s nowhere to run. Where would they go? Even if they snuck out on her fire escape, he would have no problem finding her again. He knows where she works, and if he knows where she lives, it’s very possible that he knows where Abby and Holtz live, too.

Holtz follows close behind her, one hand outstretched like she’s ready to pull Erin out of harm’s way.

“Be careful,” she pleads.

Erin stops a foot from the door and cranes her neck to peer through the peephole, then she falters when she sees who’s on the other side waiting in the hallway.

She pulls back from the peephole a second later and fumbles for the deadbolt.

Holtz grabs her arm. “What are you doing?” Her voice is panicked.

Erin ignores her and turns the doorknob, slower than she’s ever moved in her life, trembling.

“ _Erin.”_

Erin takes a deep breath and swings the door open, ready to face whatever is about to happen.

“Hello, Erin,” Jennifer says, a sinister smile curling her blood-red lips. “A word, if you please?”

 


	12. Interrogation

Jennifer doesn’t wait for an answer before pushing past Erin into the room, flanked by the security guards from NorthStar, Hawkins and Rorke, who had been waiting out in the hallway behind her.

Holtz stumbles backwards away from them. “What the—”

Erin shuts the door behind them and turns. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

Jennifer picks up a framed photo from the end table beside the couch and turns it over in her hands, looking it over with an unreadable expression. “We’ve spoken before.”

“I know who you _said_ you are,” Erin says. “I want to know who you actually are, and why you’re in my apartment.”

“We just want to talk,” Jennifer says.

“Yeah, that’s the second time I’ve heard that today and I’m not buying it,” Erin says. “I’m not going to ask again. Who _are_ you?”

“Jennifer Lynch, FBI. Hawkins and Rorke are with Homeland Security.”

The men don’t say anything, just stand with their arms crossed like they’re awaiting instruction.

Erin blinks. “But…Patty hired them. Does she _know?”_

“Of course not. We’ve been investigating this company…extremely quietly,” Jennifer says.

“Uhh…hate to break it to you, but you’ve been drawing a lot of attention to yourself,” Abby says. “The whole office and lab went into lockdown because we realized you were posing as an employee from a fake department. You call that quiet?”

Jennifer raises an eyebrow. “I have five agents posing as employees right now who have been working the case for years. Could you confidently tell me who they are?”

That shuts Abby up.

Holtz looks up. “Was there actually a security breach? Or did you fabricate that so Patty would have to bring in an external security company?”

“You catch on fast,” Jennifer says. “So, tell me then. What do you know?”

None of them say anything.

“Oh, come on,” Jennifer says. “I know you’ve been digging around. What have you come up with? You could help with our operation.”

Abby crosses her arms. “How do we know we can trust you? How do we know you’re not part of it?”

Jennifer pulls out a badge and holds it up.

“That doesn’t answer her question,” Erin says.

Jennifer puts her badge back. She’s still holding Erin’s framed photograph. “Let’s put it this way. You can either tell us what you know, or we can tear your apartment apart to retrieve the evidence you hid before we came in.” She looks over the photo in her hand, then looks up, making pointed eye contact with Erin as she sets it back down on the end table. “I’d think carefully about what you choose. There might be consequences.”

Erin’s voice shakes. “Are you threatening my family now, too?”

Jennifer’s gaze goes to the photo. “I’m surprised. You’re not on speaking terms with them, yet you keep their picture out in the open where you have to look at it every day.”

“They’re my parents,” Erin says through gritted teeth, then shakes her head. “What am I doing? We’re not talking about my family. You need to get the hell out of my apartment.”

“Watch it. This could be easy, or this could be hard,” Jennifer says. She turns to face her, the movement oddly robotic as she does so. “It’s your choice, Erin. Tell us what you know.”

“No,” Erin says.

“Tell us,” Jennifer repeats.

“ _No,”_ Erin says, firmer.

There’s a pause. Holtz is practically glued to Erin’s side.

“If you insist,” Jennifer says. “Hawkins? Rorke?”

The men move.

“Don’t bother,” Erin says loudly. “It’s all hidden in the couch.”

“What are you doing?” Holtz says.

Erin looks at her. “Let them take it. They can’t take away what we know. Nobody can.”

Hawkins and Rorke lift the couch cushions and remove all the papers that Abby and Erin stashed there.

“We’ll be taking your laptop, too,” Hawkins says.

“Fine,” Erin says. “Take it. I don’t care.”

As they walk towards the door, evidence in hand, Rorke turns to them.

“The US government doesn’t need the help of amateurs,” he says. “So go back to your little slumber party and leave the investigation to us. We’re the big dogs.”

“Goodbye,” Abby says, waving.

As soon as the door has closed behind them, Erin locks it again and turns to face Abby and Holtz.

“So, uh, that was bonkers,” Holtz says.

“We’ve got the FBI and Homeland Security watching us,” Erin says. “Great.”

She thinks about the copies of all the evidence that she stored in her safe, which is concealed in the wall behind a painting. She doesn’t say it out loud to let Abby and Holtz know, because at this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if her house was bugged. She can’t take any chances.

“What the hell have we stumbled across?” Abby says.

“I don’t know,” Erin says, staring at the closed door. “Something bigger than us, that’s for sure.”

 

“Maybe we should stay the night,” Holtz says some time later after they’ve had time to digest what just happened. “I don’t like the idea of you staying here alone.”

“Then what?” Erin shakes her head. “This can’t go on forever. I’m going to have to get on with my life at some point. Leave the apartment. Go to work.”

Holtz’s eyes bug out. “You’re going to go back to work?”

“Of course,” Erin says.

“But…”

“We have to go,” Erin says. “We have to figure out what’s going on and warn everybody. We need to tell Patty. She needs to get the hell out of there before something happens to her.”

“Yeah, but what if something happens to _you_ before that happens? Or one of us?” Holtz looks at Abby. “I don’t think any of us are safe.”

Erin studies Holtz’s concerned face and swallows. “What’s the alternative? What are we supposed to do? The only way to ensure our safety is to figure out what’s going on and put an end to it.”

“Or die trying,” Abby says grimly.

The three of them sit in silence.

“Back to work it is, I guess,” Holtz says quietly. “But I don’t care what you say—I’m staying tonight. I’m not leaving you here alone.”

“Thank you,” Erin whispers.

“I’ll stay, too,” Abby says. “We’ll go in to work tomorrow together. It’s harder to take down three of us.”

 

Erin sets up the couch with spare bedding, then looks at the two of them sheepishly. “I’ll sleep on the floor so one of you can have my bed.”

Holtz gives her a look. “Are you serious? No. You have a king-sized bed. Come on. We can share it.”

“I—I don’t—” Erin stammers.

Holtz raises her eyebrows. “Erin. Now is not the time for one of your professionalism lectures. Our lives are in danger. Let’s go.”

Erin swallows and looks at Abby. “Are you okay with the couch?”

She’s wearing an amused expression. “Obviously.”

“Okay,” Erin says in a small voice. “Fine.”

“Atta girl,” Holtz says, elbowing her playfully.

 

Erin loans both of them clothes to sleep in and lets them raid her medicine cabinet for spare toothbrushes and anything else they need. Soon, she’s lying right at the edge of her bed. Holtz is all the way against the other edge, a comical amount of space between them. Erin is simultaneously grateful for it but also wishes Holtz was closer.

“Are you scared?” Holtz says.

Erin’s heart is beating fast.

“A little,” Erin whispers. “How did you know?”

A pause. “Because I was literally with you when you were threatened?”

“Oh. Yeah. Right. That’s what you meant,” Erin says quickly.

Holtz rolls to face her. “What did you think I meant?”

“Nothing.”

Another long pause. Erin wonders if Holtz has fallen asleep.

“You know,” Holtz says through the dark eventually, “if you hadn’t been my HR Manager, I would have asked you out the day I met you.”

“What?” Erin chokes out. “Why—why would you say that? I don’t—”

“Relax,” Holtz says with a warm laugh. “I just thought you should know.”

“What am I supposed to do with that?” Erin says.

“Whatever you want,” Holtz says, then rolls back over. “Goodnight, Erin.”

Erin waits for a few seconds before responding.

“Goodnight, Holtz.”

 


	13. Termination

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not even going to apologize for how long this chapter is. While writing this chapter I got attached to the idea of 13 chapters so HERE WE ARE, EVERYTHING FINISHING AT ONCE!

The three of them are cautious as they head to the office the next morning, but they don’t run into any trouble. There’s no sign of the man who threatened Erin.

When they get up to the 13th floor, Hawkins and Rorke are there, but they don’t say anything. They just search their bags like it’s any other day. It’s like the night before never happened.

Abby goes right to the lab, but Holtz walks Erin to her office.

She touches Erin’s arm gently at the door. “Text me if anything happens, alright? Other than that…”

Erin nods imperceptibly. “See you at 10:00.”

Holtz gives her a little smile, then sweeps off in the direction of the lab.

Erin watches her go, then steps inside her office.

She boots up her computer and logs in, trying hard to pretend like it’s any other normal day at work. Although, her days here at NorthStar have been anything but normal.

Once her computer screen has loaded, an instant message pops up.

_01110010 01110101 01101110: See you at 10:00, Erin._

She freezes. Not again.

She reaches for her phone to text Holtz, then decides against it.

Maybe she’s going to finally get some answers.

 

At 9:40, she watches Abby exit the lab and cross the office towards the bathroom. At 9:50, Holtz does the same.

At 9:55, Erin stands up from her desk, keeping her eyes on Patty through her office walls. The manager is wearing sunglasses, clearly hungover from her night, and her head is bent over her computer. She doesn’t notice Erin approaching.

Erin throws Patty’s door open and stumbles in, breathing heavily like she just ran. “Patty!”

Patty lifts her head. “Yes?”

“There’s a plumbing emergency in the bathroom—you need to come, right now!”

Patty stares at her for a few seconds. “Call maintenance,” she says.

Erin scrambles for a better excuse. “No. Um. That was, uh…a lie. I didn’t want to say it, but, uhh…someone is…having sex in there,” she blurts.

Patty’s expression doesn’t change. “Fine,” she says.

Erin walks quickly to the bathroom, checking over her shoulder to make sure Patty is following. When she reaches the door and pushes it open, she steps inside to see Holtz standing in the middle of the room.

“Where’s Abby?” Erin says.

Holtz nods her head towards a closed stall. “Going pee.”

Erin ushers Patty inside. “Patty, I lied to you. There’s no employee having sex in here.”

Holtz raises an eyebrow.

“We have something to tell you,” Erin says, voice low. “We needed to talk to you where we could be sure that nobody would hear us.”

“What’s going on?” Patty says.

“Our lives are in danger,” Erin says, “and we think yours might be, too.”

Holtz swings her hands together. “We were paid a little visit by the FBI last night because we know too much.”

“About what?”

“About NorthStar,” Holtz says, gesturing around her. “And about the three companies that came before it, all of which had horrible endings.”

“Something sinister is going on under our noses,” Erin says. “The CEO of NorthStar might not be who you think he is.”

“There’s a man, Rowan North,” Holtz says. “We think he’s involved.”

“Rowan North is dead,” Patty says.

Erin and Holtz look at each other.

“You know who he is?” Erin asks cautiously. Maybe they were wrong. Maybe Patty’s in on this thing after all. Maybe they shouldn’t be telling her any of this.

“This is going to sound…a little crazy,” Holtz says, adjusting her glasses, “but Abby thinks he’s still out there. As a ghost. Right, Abby?”

Silence.

Holtz looks over her shoulder at the closed stall door. “Abby?”

Silence.

Holtz strides over. “Everything okay in there? Abby?”

Just as Holtz has her hand poised to knock, the door swings in, and Abby steps forward until she’s practically nose-to-nose with Holtz.

“Hello, Jillian,” she says.

Holtz looks her up and down. “Hello, Abby. You okay?”

“I’m quite well.”

Abby pushes past her.

“That’s good,” Holtz says, a second too late.

She turns, tracking Abby her with her eyes as she walks over to the nearest sink.

Erin stares at Abby for a second, then looks back at Patty. “As we were saying, we have reason to believe that Rowan North is still at large. We just don’t know exactly what he’s doing…all we know is that something bad is going to happen if we don’t figure out what he’s up to and put a stop to it.”

“I know what he’s up to,” Abby says, still at the sink.

Holtz has had her eyes on her this whole time. She’s leaning against the wall by the paper towel dispenser. “Oh yeah?”

There’s a pause, and then Abby rips the entire faucet from the sink. Instantly, water begins gushing out of the pipe, spraying towards the ceiling.

Holtz peels off the wall and ducks out of the way in one swift motion. “What the _fuck.”_

Abby steps to the next sink, and does the same thing.

“ _Abby!”_ Erin shouts.

“That’s not Abby,” Holtz shouts back.

“Wh—”

Erin doesn’t get the rest of the word out, because at that moment, Abby hurls the heavy metal faucet right at her head. She drops to the ground just in time, hearing it whistle through the air and crash into the stall behind her with enough force to break the tile on the wall.

Yeah. That’s not Abby.

“Stop it, Rowan,” Holtz shouts over the loud hiss of the water spraying.

Abby pauses, hand on the third sink, ready to rip it off too.

“That’s who you are, right?” Holtz says. “You’re Rowan North. You’re possessing Abby.”

Abby tilts her head with a smile. “Am I?”

“Or am I over here?” a voice behind them says.

They both whip their heads around to see Patty with her chin raised, sunglasses still shielding her eyes.

“Neat trick, isn’t it?” Abby says.

Erin looks back, trying to keep her eyes on both of them at once. Water continues to spray out of the two sinks. She’s completely drenched.

This is bad. This is very bad.

“Leave our friends alone, Rowan,” Holtz says defiantly.

“You’re so sure of who you’re speaking to,” Patty says.

“I am sure,” Holtz says. “Because…I know Rowan North.”

Now Erin’s head whips to Holtz. “What?”

“He was at MIT at the same time as me. We were classmates.”

“The truth comes out,” Abby says. “You do remember me.”

“When were you going to tell us?” Erin splutters. “That’s pretty important information to withhold, Holtz.”

“I’m sorry,” Holtz says.

“You care so much what she thinks of you,” Patty says thoughtfully. “I’ve been inside you too, Jillian.”

Holtz makes a face. “Nope. Don’t like that phrasing.”

“I’ve seen your mind. You never noticed me. I’ve been there, guiding you, spreading my seed.”

“ _Really_ don’t like that phrasing.”

“Look, I don’t know what you’re planning on doing,” Erin says, voice shaking, “but we’re going to stop you.”

“How?” Abby says.

“You can’t kill me. I’m already dead,” Patty says.

“You can’t arrest me. I don’t exist,” Abby says.

Erin looks at Holtz with wide eyes.

“We’ll banish you back to hell, then,” Holtz says confidently.

“Your technology isn’t ready for that yet,” Patty says.

Holtz falters.

“What, you think I don’t know?” Abby says. She circles Holtz. “You always did underestimate me. Everyone did.”

“I saw what nobody else did,” Patty says, “and for it I was scorned and mocked.”

“Nah, dude, you were mocked because you acted like a creepy sociopath,” Holtz says. “So, what, you left school and went to go accomplish what, exactly?”

“I set out to cleanse this earth of the _scum_ that inhabits it, and to free millions of souls. Souls that have been cast aside and rejected.”

“Right, sure. And how exactly did you plan to do that, huh?”

Abby turns to Erin with a wicked smile. “You gave me the idea.”

Erin steps back, splashing into the water on the floor. “Me?”

“You and Abby,” Patty says. “It was your research that inspired me.”

Erin looks at Abby. “What research?”

Abby tilts her head. “From college. Don’t you remember?”

Erin shakes her head. “We never published that research.”

“Didn’t you?” Patty says.

Abby holds eye contact with her. “Oops. Guess you weren’t supposed to know about that.”

“You didn’t know?” Holtz says. “She runs a website. She’s been posting your research since…well, since you left, I think.”

Erin feels like all the air in the room is being sucked out. Her ears ring with the sound of rushing water. “How would I know about that?”

“Your theories were brilliant,” Abby says. “But I could tell they were wasted on you.”

“I decided to take matters into my own hands,” Patty says. “I opened my own research plant.”

“TrueNorth,” Holtz says.

“Things were going well, but not well enough. I realized what I had to do. I couldn’t figure out how to break the barrier from this plane. I was going to have to push it down from the other side.”

“So you killed yourself,” Erin says quietly.

“I devised a plan,” Abby says.

“I set it up to look like an accident.” Patty laughs hollowly. “I didn’t expect to draw notice. Nobody had ever paid attention to me before that. Only in death did people care.”

“Suddenly the other employees were coming forward and babbling on about safety conditions. That was my first mistake. Humans: so eager to stick their worthless noses where they don’t belong.”

“The company needed a face, now, so I found one.”

“Ann Thorrow,” Holtz says. “What was her actual name?”

“Does it matter?”

“Yeah,” Holtz says, arms crossed. “You stole her life from her. The least you can do is use her real name.”

“Mary,” Patty says. “Mary Somerville. She had a husband. Two kids. She was easy to take down.”

“The weakest minds are the easiest to inhabit,” Abby says. “Mary didn’t stand a chance.”

“I decided TrueNorth had served its purpose,” Patty says. “I planted enough evidence to incriminate her in the investigation, and then I had her confess. It was only when they were taking her off to prison that I let her go.”

“You should’ve seen how she kicked up a fuss,” Abby says. “Screaming that she had been possessed by the devil. Who would believe that?”

“After that, I decided to try again. I opened NorthEast. This time I found a new body from the beginning.”

“Norton Wahr,” Erin recalls.

“That’s what I called him,” Abby says.

“We reached new heights at NorthEast. I was able to successfully open a portal,” Patty says. “I couldn’t control it, though. It was too powerful. So I sealed it off, manufactured a radiation leak at the plant, and tipped off the authorities.”

“They shut us down within the month. Quarantined the warehouse. I took Norton to the border and left him there.”

“I tried again. Opened NorthPoint under the cloak of poor little Nora. I had a team of people working on calculations that they didn’t even understand.”

“I returned to NorthEast and opened my portal again. I was closer, but I still couldn’t contain it. I shut it down for a second time and came back to NorthPoint furious.”

“I shut the place down in my anger,” Patty says. “Then I burned it to the ground and left Nora to deal with the consequences.”

“I couldn’t figure out what I was missing. Why I was _failing_. And then I realized. Maybe I needed to go to the source.” Abby stands right beside Holtz. “I’d been following your work for years, of course.”

“You and Dr. Yates and your silly little website. You should’ve been more careful.”

Holtz hangs her head.

“It was too _easy,”_ Abby says. “I picked one of the most haunted buildings in New York. I sent in a tip on your website. Put it on your radar.”

“Then all I had to do was send you a job offer. I knew you’d come, and you’d bring Dr. Yates with you.”

“You did exactly what I thought you would. So predictable. So easily manipulated.”

“You’ve spent the past three years advancing my research for me. I unlocked the secret to getting the undead to do my bidding. All your little side projects. All your stakeouts. It was all a part of my plan, and you executed it perfectly.” Patty smiles. “I should thank you, Dr. Holtzmann. Without you, none of this would have been possible.”

Abby turns to Erin. “And you. There was one piece I still needed. It was your theory, originally. I needed your mind as well.”

“It was astounding, laughable even, how easy it was to get you here.”

“I applied for this job myself,” Erin says, voice shaking.

“Who do you think got you fired from Columbia?”

Erin blinks. “That was—”

“All I had to do was track down one of your old professors and loosen his tongue. Your reputation was your own downfall.”

“Then I terminated NorthStar’s old HR Manager, put a job posting where I knew you’d find it, and waited.”

“It didn’t take long at all. You were so _desperate_. You ignored all the warning signs.”

“But I haven’t done anything,” Erin protests. “You wanted me here for my mind, but I haven’t done anything to advance your research.”

“You did exactly what I planned for you to do,” Patty says. “You figured it out.”

“Did you like my anagrams?” Abby says. “I thought you’d appreciate them.”

“I didn’t figure everything out,” Erin says. “Holtz did. And Abby. It was a team effort to figure out that you were behind this.”

“And what do you suppose they’ve been doing during your little investigation?”

“Building extra weapons,” Holtz says quietly.

Patty lifts her eyebrows with a smirk. “Like I said: I should thank you. My army is ready and armed and it wouldn’t have been possible without the three of you.”

“So you wanted this to figure this all out?” Erin shakes her head. “Why? Now we can stop you.”

“How?” Abby repeats.

Erin wipes some of the water from her eyes and adjusts her stance. “The FBI is onto you,” she says, trying to sound threatening. “It’s too late.”

Abby and Patty laugh together.

“The FBI has been onto me since TrueNorth. You think I don’t know that?”

“Did you enjoy your visit from Jennifer Lynch last night?”

Erin steps back again. “You know about that?”

“I think he got to Jennifer too,” Holtz says.

Something occurs to Erin. “That man that threatened me on the sidewalk. That was you, too.”

“Martin Heiss. He came close to figuring it out. I needed him on my side.”

“Why would you have him threaten me if you wanted me to figure out your plan?”

“To scare you,” Patty says. “People work best under pressure.”

Erin is still thinking. She looks up slowly. “All those employees who are off on leave. They figured it out—or came close.”

“Like Lori,” Holtz says. “She knew too much. Tank said she disappeared suddenly and wasn’t the same after that. She was possessed, wasn’t she? They all were. That’s how you got them to leave.”

“For a genius, you sure catch on slowly.”

“Okay, so,” Erin says, “you’ve got an army, you said? What are you going to do with it? Take over the world?”

“I don’t need to take over the world,” Abby says.

“I already have,” Patty says.

Erin shivers. She’s still soaked through—the water is up to her shins, now, and still spraying from the pipes.

She freezes. Why is the water up to her shins?

Her gaze goes slowly to the bathroom door. She sloshes through the water and tries to open it.

“It’s locked,” she chokes out.

“Surprise,” Abby singsongs.

Erin drops to her knees and feels the base of the door. The gap underneath is sealed. She stands back up, water dripping from her clothes.

“We’re trapped in here,” she says.

Holtz’s eyes are wide.

“Well, you’ve served your purpose,” Patty says. “This is where I leave you.”

“Here, you can have the other one back,” Abby says. “You’re going to need all the help you can get.”

Patty crumples suddenly.

Erin is at her side in an instant, pulling her sunglasses off her face and tossing them into the water. “Patty?”

Patty opens her eyes. Her hand goes to her head, then she looks around at the water. “What in the sweet hell?”

Erin helps her to her feet. “Are you okay?”

“The last thing I remember was some asshole bumping into me at the bar,” Patty says. “What happened?”

“You, uh, got possessed by a fucking sociopath of a ghost,” Holtz says. “No big deal.”

Patty’s brow creases, then she slowly looks up. “That was real?”

“Yeah,” Holtz says. “Oh. Also. He’s still possessing Abby right now.”

“Hello Patricia,” Abby says, and then she rips the third sink faucet off. “There’s a plumbing emergency. Better call maintenance.”

Patty ducks out of the way. “We need to get out of here.”

“Door’s locked,” Erin chokes out. “We’re trapped.”

“ _What?”_

Abby raises both hands up by her sides. “Goodbye,” she says pleasantly, and then she jerks her hands upwards.

Simultaneously, every toilet in the bathroom comes ripping from the floor, creating identical geysers in each stall. Water sprays everywhere, flooding even faster than before.

Patty rushes at Abby. “ _Enough!_ Get out of my employee, ghost!” She draws back her hand and slaps Abby across the face so hard that it echoes through the room.

There’s a flash of blue, and Abby crumples too. Holtz heaves her up and out of the water.

“Holy shit,” Abby says, blinking.

“Thanks for joining us,” Holtz says.

The water is up to their knees, now.

Erin is hyperventilating. “What are we going to do?”

Abby looks up overhead, gaze circling the room. “There’s no window.”

“We’re going to die in here,” Erin says.

Holtz sloshes through the water towards her. “Hey. Breathe.”

“We’re going to die,” Erin repeats.

“Yep. Very possible,” Holtz says. She takes Erin by the arms. “If we make it out alive, NorthStar won’t exist anymore. We’re going to be out of jobs.”

“That is the _least_ of my concerns right now,” Erin says.

“We’re either going to die, or we’re going to make it out but not have jobs. You won’t be my superior anymore.”

“What does this have to do with anything?”

“I’m just making sure we’re on the same page before I kiss you.”

“Before you _what?”_

Holtz leans in, giving Erin a second to pull away, then presses her lips to Erin’s.

Erin kisses back immediately, arms reflexively reaching around to pull Holtz as close as humanly possible.

“Is this really the time?” Abby shouts.

Holtz pulls back, rests her forehead on Erin’s, and pushes wet hair from her face.

“Wish it hadn’t taken until we were about to die to do that,” Holtz says, clearing her throat loudly as she steps back.

“Me neither,” Erin gasps out, out of breath.

“Screw this,” Patty says. “I ain’t dying in a goddamn bathroom.”

Then she charges at the door, heaving against it with a thud, and the whole thing gives way. Patty falls dramatically with the door, followed by a wave of water as it empties from the room.

Erin runs to grab her and pull her up, Holtz and Abby close behind her. The four of them stumble out into the office.

“We have to get out of here,” Patty shouts. “This is an emergency. Everybody out, now!”

Every employee in the office turns to look at them.

“What are you waiting for?” Patty continues to shout. “Run!”

Every single one of them rises from their desk simultaneously and take a synchronized step towards them.

“Uh, yeah,” Holtz says, tapping Patty’s arm. “I, uh, think we might be the only ones left.”

An unearthly, male voice echoes through the office. _“Don’t you get it? I don’t run this company. I_ am _this company.”_

“Yeah, we just gave a sociopath a nuclear lab. We should probably run,” Abby says.

_“RUN,”_ the voice hisses.

“Yep. Yeah. Good call,” Patty says.

They run.

 

None of the employees try to stop them on their way out, nor do Hawkins and Rorke, who are most definitely possessed as well. Rowan must be letting them go on purpose.

They make it to the elevator, all gasping for breath and sopping wet, dripping water onto the floor.

“We need to get to the lab,” Holtz says.

Erin looks at her. “Are you crazy? We can’t go back in there.”

“No, not that lab. My lab at home. It’s the only way we’re going to beat him.”

“He said you don’t have the technology to stop him,” Erin says.

“He said I don’t have the technology _yet_ ,” Holtz says. “I’m close. Right Abs?”

“It’s possible,” Abby says. “How fast can you work?”

“People work best under pressure,” Holtz parrots with a grim expression.

 

On their way out of the building, Patty pulls a fire alarm in the lobby.

“We have to evacuate the rest of the building,” she says by way of explanation.

“Smart,” Erin says.

People stream with them out onto the street in confusion. They push their way through the crowd and run, following Holtz.

There’s a loud crack and a boom behind them.

Erin turns her head as she runs.

“Holy shit. It’s happening.”

The rest of them look as well. The sky is darkening above them, green light streaming from the roof of their building, along with what appear to be dozens of paranormal entities.

“The third cataclysm,” Abby and Patty say at the same time.

They all freeze and stop running.

Holtz backs up away from the two of them, holding her hands up like she’s ready to physically fight them. “Not again.”

Abby and Patty look at each other.

“Why do I know that?” Patty says.

“It’s in my head too,” Abby says. “He must have left it for us.”

“Why would he do that?” Erin asks.

“I don’t know,” Abby says, staring up at the building, “but I think we should keep moving.”

 

Holtz’s apartment is close, luckily. She lets them in and locks the door behind them.

She was lying, Erin realizes. She doesn’t _have_ a lab at home. Her apartment _is_ the lab. There’s stuff _everywhere_. Covering her kitchen counter, spread out across the living room. There’s no couch. There’s not even a bed, and it’s only a studio. Where does she _sleep?_

Abby seems right at home. Her and Holtz get to work immediately, whirling around and saying things that Erin doesn’t understand at all. She catches a few words that make sense to her.

“So, we’re at a disadvantage because Rowan knows every detail about what we’ve been working on for years,” Holtz says as she flies around the room grabbing things off shelves. “Things aren’t lookin’ too hot for Team Ghostbusters.”

“What? Team _what?_ You can’t just decide on a name for us,” Erin says.

Holtz ignores her and shoves a heavy piece of machinery into her hands. “But! He’s been spreading himself too thin,” she says, darting away and leaving Erin to stumble under the weight. “He’s split himself in hundreds of pieces to possess multiple people at the same time. I can only assume that he’s weaker because of it. Like he’s playing Twister with his soul.” She looks up excitedly. “I was right! We _do_ have a Lord Voldemort situation on our hands! This is brilliant!”

“Sociopath on the loose, Holtz,” Erin says. “Focus.”

“Right. What I was getting at is that we can use this against him. If we can take him down while he’s still split apart, we have a better chance of destroying him. What we _don’t_ want is for him to gain any strength.”

“So what are we gonna do? What’s this technology that you’re talking about?” Patty looks around the room.

“We’ve been building weapons at NorthStar,” Holtz explains. “A lot of weapons.”

“Yeah, but doesn’t he have all of them?”

Holtz and Abby laugh.

“You think we haven’t been smuggling out tech for years?” Abby says.

“Y’all _better_ not have,” Patty says.

“Swallow your pride, Patty,” Holtz says. “You did your best to stop it, but your failure just might save all our lives today.”

“I’m gonna pretend you didn’t say that.”

Holtz winks.

“See, NorthStar may have been focusing on nuclear weapons to wipe out humanity,” Abby says, “but we’ve been working on the opposite.”

Holtz spreads her arms. “Welcome to the Ghost Artillery, ladies.”

Patty leans closer to Erin. “I’m a little scared.”

“You should be,” Holtz says.

 

The machine in Erin’s arms is a proton cannon, Holtz explains. She won’t tell her what it does, just that she should probably avoid holding it too long if she wants to keep all her fingernails. Erin doesn’t even know what to do with that warning.

Holtz and Abby continue to spin around the room, their back-and-forth becoming rapid fire as they throw ideas—and weapons—at each other.

“It’s not ready, but it’s going to have to do,” Holtz says as she holds a silver canister in the air. It looks like a thermos. She passes it to Abby. “Erin, c’mere.”

Erin shuffles over. Holtz takes the proton cannon from her and gives it to Patty instead, then holds out a backpack-like machine with a gun attached to it. Holtz helps her into it.

“What is it?” Erin asks.

“If it works like I think it’s going to, it’s going to shoot a proton stream at whatever ghost you aim at. And if it _doesn’t_ work like I think it’s going to…well, try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously, and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.”

“Total protonic reversal,” Erin breathes.

Holtz lights up. “Heyyyy, there she is! I knew particle physicist Erin was in there somewhere!”

“So, uh, quick question,” Erin says. “Why am I the one operating the untested nuclear laser?”

“You have the longest arms,” Holtz says, patting one of them for good measure.

They each strap a belt of grenades across their chest. Abby grabs something that looks very much like a bazooka. Holtz slings a massive gun over her shoulder.

“Y’all ready for this?” Patty asks.

“Oh, this is gonna be fun,” Holtz says, and throws open the apartment door.

Dr. Gorin stands motionless on the other side.

“Hello, Jillian,” she says.

“Oh, hey, Dr. Gorin,” Holtz says. “How’s it hangin’?”

Then she slams the door shut in Dr. Gorin’s face and turns to face them.

“Ah.” She nods. “Well, that’s a problem.”

“Where the fuck did she come from?” Abby says.

Dr. Gorin bangs on the door. “This is reckless, Jillian.”

“I’ll say,” Holtz calls.

“What are we going to do?” Erin says.

“Something that I’ve wanted to do for years,” Holtz says. She yanks the door open again and before Dr. Gorin can react, Holtz punches her in the face, hard.

Dr. Gorin crumples to the ground.

“Run!” Abby shouts.

They push into the hallway and sprint. Erin looks back to see Dr. Gorin lift her head and touch her hand to her temple, squinting into the light.

“Sorry, Doc,” Holtz calls over her shoulder. “You were possessed by a ghost. No time to explain. Catch ya later!”

 

Outside, they run back in the direction of the building. The sky is completely dark now, and flooded with ghosts.

“This might be a crazy hunch,” Abby says, “but I think he’s got a portal open here, too.”

They reach the entrance of the building and skid to a stop, staring up at it.

“Alright. Let’s burn this company to the ground,” Holtz says, cocking her gun.

Erin grabs her arm. “Wait, we’re not actually burning it to the ground, right?”

“It’s an expression,” Holtz says, but her eyes gleam.

“Okay, so we’re not literally burning it to the ground.”

“It’s a metaphor,” Abby says.

“Or is it?”

“Can we just get in there already and do _something?”_ Patty says.

“With pleasure.” Holtz lifts her boot and kicks the door in.

The rest of them follow her inside to the deserted lobby. The fire alarms have been shut off, but the building still seems to be evacuated.

Patty presses the elevator button.

Erin waves her hand. “Uh, is it safe to use the elevator in an emergency like this?”

Patty gives her a look. “If you want to walk up 13 flights of stairs, be my guest.”

“Okay, good point,” Erin says.

They all step inside the elevator with their equipment. Elevator music trills happily in the background. Holtz bobs her head to the melody and whistles.

When the elevator doors slide open, they step out into the familiar hallway.

“Shoot,” Erin says. “Does anyone have their security pass?” She rummages in her pockets.

Holtz holds her back with a hand across her chest. “Allow me.”

She swings her gun down off her shoulder and points it at the frosted glass door with a grin, then pulls the trigger.

The door shatters into a million pieces, exploding in spectacular fashion. They all duck out of the way of the flying shards of glass.

“ _Holtz,”_ Erin chastises.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Holtz picks her way over the mess, glass crunching under her boots, and reaches her arm through the frame to open the door.

The rest of them follow her into the office, which is empty as well. There’s still a good inch of water pooled on the floor.

“Where did everybody go?” Patty mutters.

“You think he’s still here?” Erin says.

“He’s gotta be,” Abby says. “Look.”

Across the office, the doors to the lab are glowing green.

“Maybe we can draw him out so we don’t have to go in there,” Holtz says.

Erin lifts her head. “Hey, Holtz, can I borrow your gun for a second?”

“You can borrow my gun any time you like,” Holtz says.

Erin gives her a look. “Your tone is suggesting that that was an innuendo, but I’m going to ignore it.”

Holtz winks and hands her the gun.

Erin turns about 45 degrees to the left, aims, and fires.

Her glass office explodes. All four of them duck. Broken glass rains down.

“Okay, that was extra,” Patty says.

“Now he knows we’re here,” Erin says. She hands the gun back to Holtz. “I hated that office. Stupid glass walls.”

“You’re crazy,” Holtz says. “I like it.”

Erin’s face heats up. “We, uh, we should really try to make it out of here alive. We have some…” She clears her throat. “Unfinished business.”

Holtz grins.

“Oh, Rowaaan,” she trills. “Come out, come out, wherever you are. Let’s make this quick. I’ve got a hot HR Manager to make out with.”

Erin’s face must be scarlet.

_“What form would you prefer I take?”_

They all look around overhead, trying to pinpoint the location of the voice.

“What happened to your puppets?” Abby says.

“ _I couldn’t help but overhear your little tip. You were right—I’m stronger alone than I am divided,”_ Rowan says. “ _Thanks for the help, Dr. Holtzmann.”_

“I say stupid shit all the time,” Holtz says with exasperation. “People aren’t supposed to _listen_ to me.”

“It’s no use,” Erin says. “He’s not going to come out. We’re just going to have to deal with that portal. Try to seal it off, or something.”

“How the hell are we going to close it?” Abby shakes her head. “That’s going to take an insane amount of power.”

Patty just stares at them. “Are you kidding me? We’re standing in a nuclear research facility right now.”

Abby and Holtz exchange a look.

“If we can get the reactors supercritical in there, the beta radiation could 180 the polarity,” Holtz says with excitement.

“Turning the lab into a gigantic ghost trap! Holy shit, you’re a genius, Patty,” Abby says.

“Damn right I am,” Patty says.

Erin stares at the lab doors. “So what you’re saying is…”

“Mama gets to burn something after all,” Holtz says with glee. “We have to get in there and blow it all to hell.”

“We’re not gonna make it out of the building. We’re on the 13th floor,” Patty says.

They all look at each other.

“So on the plus side, we save the world,” Erin says, “and on the negative side, we experience the most painful death of all time.”

“That’s the spirit,” Holtz says.

Erin nods slowly. “Okay. Let’s do it.”

 

Holtz grabs a Sharpie out of Patty’s office and draws a hurried map of the lab on the glass wall, circling the key areas.

“We’ll need to divide and conquer,” she says. “Once we start shooting, we only have so much time before the lab goes up. We _might_ have enough time to make it back out here and shield ourselves, but only if you do exactly as I say.” She taps the glass and draws a circle. “Abby, you’re going to take out everything along this wall. You know what to do. Patty, you’re going to stand right here and launch the proton cannon right into the vortex. Erin, you’re going to be in this spot, and you’re going to fire into the portal as well. And I’ll take the back.”

Erin wonders if Holtz gave her the location closest to the door on purpose. She also wonders if she took the location _furthest_ from the door for herself on purpose in an effort to be self-sacrificing.

“We’re all going to fire at the exact same time, on my command,” Holtz says. “And then when I say so, we’re going to run like hell.”

Erin pulls her gun from where it’s stowed on the side of her pack, and weighs it in both hands. “We got this.” She swallows. “And if we don’t make it out of there alive, I just want to say that despite it all, I’m really, _really_ glad that I took this job. It’s been a pleasure working with all of you.”

Patty steps forward. “And _I_ just wanna say that y’all are the best employees that a manager could ask for, and even better friends.”

Holtz clears her throat. “I never really thought I’d have a friend until I met Abby, and now I have all of you, and…” Her eyes flit to Erin. “I really hope we don’t die today. But if we do: it’s been an honour.”

“Love you guys,” Abby says. She lifts her gun. “Let’s kick some ghost ass.”

“ _How touching,”_ Rowan’s voice echoes overhead. “ _So ready to die together. I can’t say that I won’t take great pleasure in this.”_

Holtz lifts her gun, too. “Ready?”

They all nod.

She aims at the PIN pad at the side of the steel doors and fires. It blows up, and seconds later Holtz is yanking open the doors and doing the same to the second one as well.

“Go, go, go,” she says.

The four of them burst into the lab and immediately stumble back. Holtz catches Erin by the arm just as she’s about to tumble into the portal.

It’s huge. It’s taking up the entire room. Ghosts are streaming up through the open ceiling towards the sky above.

“No time to change the plan,” Holtz calls. “Abby?”

The two of them move as fast as they can along the side walls, trying to get around the portal without getting sucked into it.

“Ready?” Holtz shouts once they’re all in position. “Hey, Rowan: this is what happens when you don’t let us unionize! _NOW!_ ”

They all fire simultaneously. Erin holds down the red trigger button and a crackling stream of energy shoots from the end of her gun, which she directs straight into the portal. She assumes it’s what Holtz wanted it to do—she’s not dead yet, so that’s something.

Erin can’t tear her eyes off her own mission to see what the others are doing, but she can hear the boom of Patty’s proton cannon and a series of loud noises from the end of the room where Holtz is. A number of overlapping emergency alarms blare, which must mean they’re doing something right. In Erin’s peripherals, she can start to see the room glow red, including the portal. The air is filling with smoke.

“It’s gonna blow,” Holtz shouts, “RUN!”

Patty throws the entire proton cannon into the vortex and runs. Abby does the same, tossing a few grenades as she runs.

Erin can’t see Holtz. She’s still holding down the trigger.

“HOLTZ?!”

Holtz appears out of nowhere, crashing into her, shoving her backwards towards the door. Erin’s thumb slips off the trigger, the proton stream retreating.

They stumble together towards the door, out the first and then the second, Holtz turning to heave it closed behind them. Erin fumbles her gun back onto the side of her pack.

They sprint towards the spot where Erin’s office used to be and dive under her desk, each taking hold of a side of it and bracing like they’re in an earthquake. Erin doesn’t see where Abby and Patty ran.

Holtz makes eye contact with her for one frenzied second, and then they both duck their heads as the lab explodes with a burst of light and a boom that rocks the building. The walls blow out, giving them a clear view of the portal within, which is changing colours and starting to suck matter into it. The closest ghosts are pulled right back in.

“It’s working!” Abby shouts from somewhere in the room.

While the portal continues to suck all the ghosts back into it, the inferno from the explosion does the opposite, spreading into the office. The burnt-orange walls start to peel in the heat, charring as flames creep up them. Erin is struck with a sudden flashback to her first day, when she thought the paint colour made the whole office look like it was on fire. There’s a cruel sort of irony in that thought.

“Shit,” Patty calls. “We gotta get outta here!”

Erin crawls out from under the desk and staggers to her feet. “Where’s Rowan?”

Holtz joins her. “There!” She points at a flash of blue.

Rowan’s laugh echoes through the office.

“We can’t let the portal close with him still here,” Erin says.

“He’s too strong,” Abby says.

Erin looks to see her and Patty over by the breakroom.

Flames continue to surge around them, and the smoke is getting thicker. The portal is starting to close in on itself. They’re running out of time.

Erin rolls her shoulders back and reaches for her gun again. “I’ve got this.”

“No, Erin, don’t—”

Erin doesn’t hear the rest of Holtz’s warning, because the second she presses the trigger and the proton stream lashes out, it immediately goes white and she’s hit with an electric current so powerful that it knocks her off her feet and her vision goes black for a second.

Holtz is at her side in an instant, tearing the pack off her back.

“—doesn’t play nice with fire,” she’s saying.

Erin’s ears are ringing and she can taste blood.

Holtz loops one arm around Erin’s waist and drapes Erin’s arm over her shoulder, heaving her to a standing position and staggering under her weight.

“Come on, we have to get out of here.”

“But Rowan—”

Holtz ignores her and drags her towards the exit. Abby and Patty are waiting for them by the reception desk.

Erin looks over her shoulder, vision blurry, and sees the flash of blue through the fire and smoke.

“ _See you next time, Erin Gilbert,”_ he taunts.

That’s the last thing she’s conscious of before her vision fades to black altogether.

 

She wakes up on the pavement with Holtz’s head hovering right over her.

She blinks into the light and coughs. She turns her head a little to the left to see that they’re across the street from the building. There are no more signs of spectral energy coming from the top, which means that they were successful in reversing and closing the portal. Smoke pours out of the windows, though, and the flames have reached the outside of the building. Sirens blare in the distance.

“Are you okay?” Holtz asks.

Erin turns her attention back to the engineer and frowns. “You’re bleeding.”

Holtz smiles. “We all are. Shrapnel. You’re the one I’m worried about, though. You went down pretty hard. I’m really sorry about that.”

“You tried to warn me,” Erin mumbles.

“You were just trying to save the day,” Holtz says.

Erin turns her head again to the building and sighs.

“He’s still in there.”

“We did the best we could,” Holtz says gently. “Given the circumstances, I think we kicked ass.”

Erin smiles wistfully.

The firetrucks screech to a stop in front of the building, along with a few ambulances. Erin watches Patty jog over and flag someone down.

“Well,” Erin says, “I guess that’s that.”

Holtz looks down at her. “What?”

“No more NorthStar,” Erin says. “We burned the company to the ground. Now we’re officially jobless.”

Abby, hovering nearby, glances down at them. “I’m not worried. Did you see what happened in there? We’re set for life.”

“Best field test ever,” Holtz says. “I already have ideas for improvements. Fire-resistance, for starters.”

Erin’s brow creases. “You mean you’re going to keep doing this? Researching ghosts?”

“As if we’d ever stop,” Abby says.

“You could join us,” Holtz says. “Patty, too.”

“What’s that?” Patty asks, having just walked back up to them. A couple of paramedics are on their way behind her with a stretcher.

“We were just talking about how awesome that was and how this is going to take our research to new heights,” Abby says. “We made a pretty good team in there, and it’s obvious that our work is far from over. This city clearly needs someone looking out for it, what with the sociopath still on the loose. You wanna join us?”

Patty raises her eyebrows. “Serious? Uh, hell yeah.”

Erin is still frowning. “You would wanna…research ghosts?”

“I have a degree in history,” Patty says. “I’ve always been fascinated by paranormal history. Freaks me the hell out, but I still love it.”

They all look at Erin expectantly.

She’s saved from giving them an answer by the paramedics. Holtz moves out of their way so they can get to Erin.

They ask them questions about what happened, how long they were in there breathing in the smoke, what injuries they think they’ve sustained. Holtz lies smoothly and says that Erin was electrocuted by a power surge, the same surge that triggered the explosion and resulting fire.

Multiple people ask if there’s anyone else left in the building.

“No,” Erin says. “There’s nobody.”

 

The paramedics decide that all four of them need to go to the hospital. Erin’s the only one who they take out on a stretcher. Holtz asks to go in the same ambulance as Erin.

“You don’t seem very keen,” she says once they’re on the road.

“About what?” Erin asks, even though she knows exactly what Holtz is talking about.

“Joining us,” Holtz says. “ _Doing_ this.”

Erin pauses for a moment, trying to come up with the words. It’s difficult when her brain is foggy and she’s in a considerable amount of pain. Now that the adrenaline is dissipating, she’s become very aware of it.

“What use would I be?” she says finally. “I’m not a scientist. Or a historian. Or anything useful. What am I gonna do, progressively discipline the ghosts?”

“I’m thinking you’d jump straight to termination,” Holtz says, miming firing a proton gun.

“That sounds like we’d just be asking for a wrongful termination suit,” Erin says, unable to keep a smile from her face.

Holtz grins. “Just think about it, okay? You were pretty amazing in there. We all were. Think about what we could achieve.”

Erin bites her lip, then stops when she realizes it hurts.

“Rowan will come back,” she says.

“Yeah,” Holtz agrees. “He probably will.”

“Someone’s going to have to stop him.”

“We could stop him,” Holtz says confidently. “If we were better prepared? Come on. Piece of cake. The only reason he slipped through our grasp today is because we had like, ten minutes to prepare.”

“I just can’t help but feel like we failed,” Erin says. “He’s still at large because of us.”

“We didn’t fail at all,” Holtz says. “We saved the world from what could’ve been a ghost apocalypse. We closed the portal. That’s not nothing. And sure, Rowan ended up on the wrong side of it, but think of it this way: he’s going to have to start from scratch again. By the time he works up the resources again, we’ll be ready and waiting.”

“Not entirely from scratch,” Erin murmurs. “What about his abandoned warehouse? NorthEast? He already tried opening a portal there twice. He could go back.”

Holtz shrugs. “Not if we go there first.”

Erin contemplates that.

“Things to consider,” Holtz says quietly.

Erin nods slowly.

Holtz licks her lips. “Hey. We also managed to make it out of there alive. That’s another win.”

Erin smiles tentatively. “Yeah.”

“So, uh. That unfinished business you were talking about earlier. You think maybe when we’ve been all patched back up again, we could revisit that?”

Now Erin really smiles. “Yeah, Holtz. We can revisit that.”

Holtz grins. “Excellent.”

Erin stares up at the roof of the ambulance. “You know, when I took this job, this is _really_ not where I saw things going. If you told me that within a few months, I’d be risking my life and career to take down a paranormal conspiracy alongside my manager, the best friend that I hadn’t spoken to in 20 years, and the biggest HR nightmare that I’ve ever dealt with in all my years…”

“Would you have still taken it?”

Erin looks over, taking in Holtz’s curious expression, her dress-code-violating outfit singed at the seams, the blood drying on her cheek. The engineer has done nothing but drive her crazy since the day she set foot that elevator on Erin’s first day, but now she’s driving her crazy in a whole new way. Erin wishes desperately that they were alone, that they weren’t on their way to a hospital, that she wasn’t injured.

It doesn’t matter, though. They’re unemployed now. They have all the time in the world to do everything she wants to do and more.

Her response is instantaneous.

“Without a doubt,” she says.

Holtz smiles and reaches to take hold of her hand, and Erin already knows that she’s going to say yes and join them. Find Rowan again and take him down once and for all. Get that PhD that she always dreamed of having, or not. Maybe she doesn’t need it.

Either way, she feels like this is what she was always meant to do. Where she was meant to end up.

Maybe, just maybe, she’s not suited to a boring 9-5 after all.

And maybe that’s more than okay with her.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for indulging me with this one! My original idea was just "office AU where Erin is HR and Holtz is...herself" and then in the early brainstorming stages it suddenly took on this mystery that I wasn't expecting, and from there I had to figure out what it was. I'm pretty pleased with how it came together in the end and I hope you guys enjoyed figuring it out as much as I did! Until next time xoxo

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr?](http://jillbert.tumblr.com)


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